PHA-Exch> Global child mortality rates continue to drop, UNICEF reports

[Claudio Schuftan]

From: Vern Weitzel <vern.weitzel at gmail.com>
crossposted from: "[health-vn discussion group]" health-vn at cairo.anu.edu.au


http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=28029&Cr=UNICEF&Cr1=mortality

Global child mortality rates continue to drop, UNICEF reports


12 September 2008 – The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) today called
for accelerated efforts to save young peoples' lives as new figures indicate
that the rate of deaths of children aged under five continues its long-term
decline around the world.
The mortality rate has fallen by some 27 per cent since 1990, according to
statistics released by UNICEF. Last year there were 68 deaths for every
1,000 live births, compared with 93 deaths nearly two decades earlier.

Bangladesh, Bolivia, Laos and Nepal have made particularly impressive
advances, more than halving their mortality rates since 1990. This also
ensures they are on track to meet the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) that
calls for a two-thirds reduction in child deaths by 2015.

But UNICEF noted in a press release that the improvements have been felt
worldwide. In industrialized countries, there is now an average of just six
deaths for every 1,000 births. In Africa, the continent with the worst
rates, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Malawi, Mozambique and Niger have slashed their
death rates.

UNICEF Executive Director Ann M. Veneman said the global mortality rate for
young children has fallen by more than 60 per cent since 1960.

"Recent data also indicate encouraging improvements in many of the basic
health interventions, such as early and exclusive breastfeeding, measles
immunization, Vitamin A supplementation, the use of insecticide-treated nets
to prevent malaria, and prevention and treatment of HIV/AIDS," she said.

"These interventions are expected to result in further declines in child
mortality over the coming years."

But Ms. Veneman warned that despite this progress, much more needs to be
done. In Sierra Leone, for example, 262 out of every 1,000 children die
before they reach their fifth birthday.

Under-nutrition was a cause of more than one-third of the estimated 9.2
million children under the age of five who died last year. As many as 148
million children in poor countries remain undernourished, despite efforts to
reduce this number since 1990.

Ms. Veneman stressed the need to speed up programmes that improve the
nutritional needs of children, infants and women.
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