Child survival and the need for wider dissemination of health research.

The Bellagio meeting on child survival was held in February 2003, where first reliable estimates on child morbidity and mortality were made and, the effective preventive and treatment interventions for reducing under five child deaths were identified. The meeting gave a momentum to child survival efforts across the world. This review summarizes the child survival series published thereafter and outlines the evidences generated. The author argues that the meeting was a landmark step, and the need for these interventions is still the same as it was five years back. The author adds that health research has ever since been on the agenda of international community; however, the equally important step of wider dissemination of available knowledge, to fill the "delivery gap", has almost been neglected. This paper provides evidences of how health research and its wider access to policy makers and implementers can improve the child survival. The author also calls for an immediate mechanism to make health research easily available and accessible, to the practitioners in the developing nations.