LONDON, Aug 24, 2008 (UPI via COMTEX) -- Poverty in England is responsible for
poor health, and even death, among children, a broad range coalition of groups
says in a report.
End Child Poverty -- a 130-group network of children's charities, church groups,
unions and think tanks -- suggested in its report that children from poor
families are at 10 times the risk of sudden infant death as children from
higher-income homes, The Observer said Sunday.
The report said poorer children are two-and-a-half times more likely than others
to suffer chronic illness as toddlers and twice as likely to have cerebral
palsy, the newspaper reported.
"Poverty is now one of the greatest dangers faced by our children," said Nick
Spencer, one of the report's authors and professor of child health at the
University of Warwick. "If poverty were an infection, we would be in the midst
of a full-scale epidemic."
The British government says progress is being made to narrow the gap between
rich and poor.
"We have already lifted hundreds of thousands of children out of poverty with
new tax credits, more people in work and better public services, the latest
figures show we have not made enough progress," British Prime Minister Gordon
Brown said in June.
URL: www.upi.com
Copyright 2008 by United Press International