More than 200 million children under age 5 do not receive basic health care in case of illness. Poor children are visibly more exposed to sickening and death risk than the well-off ones.

About 10 million of these die annually, having treatable diseases like diarrhea and pneumonia as a cause, according to the ninth annual State of the World's Mothers report issued today by Save the Children, a U.S.-based global independent humanitarian organization.

The report contains information about 146 countries worldwide, pointing out to what extent they do succeed in offering children the appropriate treatments and control in terms of basic health. This concept of basic health implies prenatal care, skilled care at childbirth, vaccinations and treatments for curable illnesses. 30% of children living in developing countries are not getting these staple healthcare services.

Sweden, Norway, Iceland, New Zealand and Denmark were on the top of the list. Niger was last.

In comparison to other years’ rankings, the Philippines recorded a progress.

"The Philippines nearly cut its child death rate in half since 1990. The health ministry, through USAID (U.S. Agency for International Development) support, launched a number of health initiatives in 1989, including a push to increase access to oral rehydration therapy to treat diarrhea," David Oot, who heads the group's global health programs, said, as Reuters India cites.

Laos, Yemen, Chad, Somalia and Ethiopia were noted to have the worst situation amongst developing countries.

Records show that 75% of Filipino children with diarrhea receive rehydration therapy, in contrast to 15% of Ethiopian children.

The means with which children’s lives could be saved wouldn’t lead to high expenditures. They include antibiotics, which are to be used in treating pneumonia, an illness that makes numerous victims among children under 5 and rehydration therapy, a solution containing salt, sugar and potassium, for treatments against diarrhea.