350 mil. children will never see health worker

An international children's rights group says about 350 million children worldwide will never see a health worker in their lives.

British NGO Save the Children made the prediction in a report released on Monday.

The organization says that in Africa and Asia millions of children die every year from easily preventable diseases such as pneumonia and diarrhea, simply because they have no access to trained health workers.

In Nigeria, Ethiopia and Liberia, which face serious shortages of health workers, children are 5 times more likely to die before their 5th birthday than children living in countries with enough medical professionals.

The group said that highly trained doctors in developing nations are likely to go work for medical institutions in advanced nations where higher salaries and more advanced equipment are available.

Save the Children is planning to ask world leaders at a UN general assembly meeting later this week to improve children's access to medical treatment.