PHA-Exchange> Child mortality 'at record low'

[Claudio Schuftan]

From: Vern Weitzel vern at coombs.anu.edu.au
*Yes, but is survival enough? Is the quality of life of the sirvivors
assuring them a bright(er) future....?*
*Claudio *

*Child mortality 'at record low'*

Millions of lives have been saved by immunisation, Unicef says
Fewer children under five worldwide are dying than ever before, according to
the
United Nations Children's Fund, due to increased immunisation.
Greater steps have also been taken to prevent the spread of malaria, a
Unicef
report says.

But nearly 10 million children under five died in 2006, the report adds.

The Millennium Development Goal of reducing child mortality by two-thirds by
2015 could be met by Latin America and the Caribbean, Unicef says.

This slowing in the rate of child deaths, from 13 million in 1990, to 9.7
million in 2006, is due to a combination of factors, including better
immunisation, more mothers breastfeeding and mosquito nets being used to
prevent
the spread of malaria.

The decline in the numbers of children dying was particularly marked in
Morocco,
Vietnam and the Dominican Republic, where the number dying dropped by a
third.

China has seen a drop from 45 deaths for every 1,000 lives in 1990 to 24 in
2006, while in India the drop was from 115 to 76.

In sub-Saharan Africa deaths from measles have been reduced by 75% due to
increased vaccination coverage.

Doubts cast

"This is an historic moment," said Unicef executive director Ann Veneman.


We are not doing better at reducing child mortality now than we were three
decades ago
Christopher Murray, University of Washington

"More children are surviving today than ever before. Now we must build on
this
public health success to push for the achievement of the Millennium
Development
Goals."

But some experts questioned Unicef's interpretation of the data.

"Considering all the tools we have for child survival, we are not doing
better
at reducing child mortality now than we were three decades ago," Dr.
Christopher
Murray, director of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the
University of Washington told Associated press agency.

Nearly five million under fives from sub-Saharan Africa died in 2006 as well
as
three million from South Asia.

The spread of HIV and Aids continues to claim children's lives in Africa
countering the effects of better medicine for other childhood illnesses.

The authors of this report say most child deaths are preventable. What is
needed
is better local health care, they say.




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