ID	172
Title	The Silent Epidemic
Broadcast	2013-02-12 00:00:00
Network	BBC World Service
Presenter	Mark Whitaker
Producer	Mike Hally
Precis	Mark Whitaker reports from Bangladesh and Vietnam on the surprising fact that drowning is a leading cause of child death across SE Asia, and on the efforts being made to prevent it.
Duration	23
Txtime	1899-12-30 08:00:00
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Description	Everybody assumes that the biggest killers of children in poor countries are diseases like cholera, pneumonia and dysentery and it's the belief that still drives the global public health agenda. Yet it's not actually true -- in countries like Bangladesh drowning is the number one killer and it's a leading cause of death across south-east Asia. That's a quarter of a million child fatalities every year - as many as all the children and adults who drowned in the Asian tsunami of 2004. Yet because most child drownings go unrecorded and because they happen in ones and twos every day, rather than in one great cataclysmic event, the problem has gone largely un-reported. It's a hidden killer -- a 'silent epidemic'. Mark Whitaker reports from Bangladesh, and also from Vietnam - where the problem was identified with the help of the first US Ambassador to the country after the war, Pete Peterson. An ex-fighter pilot who spent 6 years as a POW in Hanoi, Peterson founded The Alliance for Safe Children which led the research that revealed the problem, and now leads a large drowning prevention programme. Children drown in these countries because there are so many ponds, irrigation ditches and rivers, often within yards of each house. Few know how to swim and the youngest are particularly vulnerable when mothers are too busy to supervise them closely. So in Bangladesh, a country much of which is under water, TASC is pioneering a huge programme of "survival swimming", training local instructors to teach simple swimming strokes, treading water and safe rescue. For children under 4 there's a parallel programme of village creches to keep them safe while their mothers do the chores. Web links: The Alliance for Safe Children - you can assist their work by donating through the website The Centre for Injury Prevention and Research Bangladesh The International Drowning Research Centre The Royal Life Saving Society Australia The International Life Saving Federation UNICEF The World Health Organisation
SqDogNumber	56
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Caption1	boy swimming in portable pool
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Caption2	village pond in rural Bangladesh, showing use of locally made bamboo compound to keep the swimmers safe
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Caption3	shanties on the edge of a deep lake in a poor area of Dhaka city - serious drowning hazard
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Caption4	children learning to swim in a portable pool at a school in Dhaka
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Caption5	a 'Swimsafe' success - the boy on the left saved his younger cousin from drowning by using a stick instead of jumping in after him