Six million children who die each year from preventable diseases could be saved if richer nations gave another $5.1 billion a year, according to a new report presented on Friday.

That’s the amount they calculate would cover the costs of providing drugs, vitamins and vaccines to treat sick babies in 42 countries that account for 90 percent of child deaths.

“This cost represents $1.23 per head in these countries,” said researcher Dr. Jennifer Bryce, lead author of the report published in The Lancet medical journal.

In a study in 2003, Bryce and World Health Organisation colleagues identified 23 simple measures that could save millions of children in the world’s poorest countries - mainly in sub-Saharan Africa and southeast Asia.

They include promoting breastfeeding, improving nutrition, and providing vaccination, drugs and insecticides to prevent malaria.

Now they have calculated how much it will cost.

About half of the deaths from preventable diseases in children under five years old occur in six countries: India, Nigeria, China, Pakistan, Democratic Republic of Congo and Ethiopia.

The illnesses that kill them range from diarrhoea, pneumonia and malnutrition to Malaria and HIV/AIDS.

“We know these child survival interventions are effective,” said Bryce. Although doctors have the means to prevent childhood deaths with simple interventions and inexpensive treatments, they are not being incorporated into public health policies.

“These estimates reflect the running cost at scale, including all drugs and equipment; the cost of delivering the interventions; and additional programme costs, including management and supervision,” Bryce said in the report.

But the figure does not include the scaling up of health systems to provide universal coverage.

Dr. Barbara McPake, a health economist at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Health in England, said $5.1 billion is less than half of the resources currently targeted for the treatment of AIDS alone. About $12 million-$20 million is committed annually to fighting HIV/AIDS.

But McPake added it may not be as simple as just spending the money. “We need the money but we also need attention to building up the health systems through which the services can be delivered,” she said.