Heartbroken Hollywood star Sean Penn has appealed for more help for Haiti.

Penn says people are dying as the world has moved on and forgotten the victims of the January earthquake.

A visibly upset Penn told CNN of his efforts to save just one child and how it was "murder" that the 15-year-old, Oriel, died in Port-au-Prince.

“There’s no excuse for the loss of this boy,” Penn said.

Penn carried Oriel from hospital to hospital in a last-ditch bid to save the child's life.

"He's not going to die," Penn told CNN. "He's his father's only child. That's not allowed."

But each hospital refused to admit Oriel because he had diphtheria and the hospitals were afraid of contamination.

Finally, doctors in the city's General Hospital agreed to place him on life support where he died last Thursday.

Penn says children like Oriel can be saved with cheap treatments as long as they are available.

However, Oriel had been sick for six days before receiving treatment.

Penn says his death was needless and could easily have been prevented.

He arrived in the devastated country a week after the earthquake and is now helping manage a makeshift camp, which was set up at the city's luxury golf clubs.