O ano 2015 e a saúde da criança

Abstract

Although this journal is dedicated to the wide-ranging field of mother and child health, the present issue composed entirely of articles relating to child health alone underscores the importance of this subject in today's medical and socio-epidemiological context. In fact, the growing concern for the life and well-being of the child has been constant (although still not ideal), given the need to meet the Millennium Goals set by the United Nations in the year 2000. These goals are contained in the "Millennium Declaration" 1,2 signed by 191 memberstates committed to meeting "Eight Development Objectives for the Millennium" by 2015. At least four of the eight objectives are of fundamental importance for children and their social and medical well-being:-Eradicating hunger and extreme poverty;-Achieving universal basic education;-Reducing infant mortality;-Improving maternal health. The year 2015 is thus critical for attempting to identify the extent to which these goals are being achieved. We know that much progress has been made, though much still needs to be done. However, it should be noted that, even when achieved, these goals will not provide a definitive solution to the problems. The very definitions of the goals indicate their limitations through the use of terms such as 'reduce' or 'improve'. So the knowledge of child growth during the intrauterine development is an important clinical and biological concern because could provide the necessary health attention for a further good life-quality. Studies that provide support for the achievement of the Millennium Goals are extremely welcome. This is the case of the extensive investigation of child growth and development titled "INTERGROWTH-21 st ", which was a large-scale research program involving various studies published in September 2014 in journals belonging to the Lancet group. 3,4 These studies aimed to monitor the growth of children from the fetal stage up to birth and present new curves, which have been improving on the already classic anthropometric growth curves of the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) (1977), the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) (2000) and the World Health Organization (WHO) (2006-2007). This was a multicentric, international research enrolling a multiethnic population with 20,486 newborn children from eight countries (Brazil,