Monday, December 27, 2010

Child Mortality is still too high


"Child mortality has declined in every region since 1960, when 1 in 5 children died before the age of 5. By 1990, this rate had fallen to 1 in 10 children. Since then, progress has slowed, and a few countries in Sub-Saharan Africa actually experienced increases in child mortality. In 2008, 33 countries had under-five mortality rates greater than 100 per 1,000. Thirteen countries --€“ all of them in Sub-Saharan Africa --€“ had under-five mortality rates greater than 160 per 1,000. In developing countries today, 1 in 14 children die before their fifth birthday, compared with 1 in 147 in high-income countries. While the gap between goal and reality is greatest in Sub-Saharan Africa, millions of children are also at risk in populous South Asia. The regional average in Latin America and the Caribbean disguises wide variations. In Europe and Central Asia questions remain about the quality and comparability of data over time. More than half the countries in the Middle East and North Africa and South Asia are on track to reach the target, although the regional averages fall short."

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