Close to 200 children under the age of 5 die each year in Fiji as a result of their mothers missing their antenatal clinics.

That is the revelation from the Family Health National Advisor Dr Josaia Samuela who said that after their surveys over the past three years, they have noted that Diabetes, Anemia and Sexually Transmitted Infections kill the babies and this arises from the prenatal period or within first month of the newborn's life.

At the recent launching of the Save the Children's "EVERYONE", a global campaign for new born and child survival, Samuela said that many mothers do not want to come to the clinics or are just too ignorant of the importance of the clinics.

Samuela added that out of the 200 deaths, majority is due to syphilis, saying mothers need to attend the Clinics because STIs are hard to detect in women and are quickly passed onto their unborn babies.

Under the EVERONE program, a team of doctors and nurses from the health ministry were at Caubati Mobile Play Center yesterday to conduct checks on children.