A recent study shows a decrease in the proportion of death for children less than 5 years. The study reveals that global childhood death has diminished by 60 percent over the last four decades.
Moreover, the last 2 decades are responsible for the most massive reduction in the number of death amidst newborns, infants and one-to four years old children. The fall has been from 11.9 million to approximately 7.7 million as for 2010.
However, there is still an appalling quantity of young lives that are lost. The world’s poorest nations account for most of the childhood death toll. The deaths are also mostly due to preventable diseases.
For a child born today, in Mali, Nigeria or Chad, the future is uncertain. They are sixty times more prone to die before their fifth birthday in comparison to a child born in Scandinavia.
UN’s Millennium goal is also far beyond reached. Its objective is to decrease global child death by 66 percent for the period 1990 to 2015.
Nonetheless, the slash in childhood death under-five years by 60 percent is a prodigious achievement. It is likely going to make more progress feasible.
There are 31 countries that are likely to meet UN’s objective for 2015. This includes countries like Egypt, Mexico, Malaysia and Brazil.
The study proclaims that 54 out of the 187 countries examined are poised to meet the UN’s goal.
Some 40 years ago several countries were classified with a childhood death for children under-five years of 200 per every 1,000 live births. However, in 1990, there were only 12 countries having such a grimy childhood death index. Nowadays, no country in the world has a death toll of 200 per 1,000, according to a study published in the British Medical Journal: The Lancet.
Christopher Murray, director of the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) said that the most exceptional accomplishment over the recent 20 years has been to decrease child mortality in countries having had the worse historical child mortality figures.
UN’s figures have been unequally matched with IHME study showing much lower statistics. However, this novel benchmark has not yet been challenged.
Another variation in child mortality for children under-five years come from UNICEF. They published the death toll for child mortality under-five years to be 8.77 million in 2008. However, a more recent for the same year suggested that the child death toll for children under-five years to be 7.95 million. The gap is 820,000 lives.
The overall contributors to the declining mortality rate have been achieved through anti-malaria bednets, immunisation, anti-retroviral drugs and prevention of mother-to-child HIV transmission.
In general, developing countries has a much higher mortality rate in comparison to industrialized ones.
Statistics for Rich-nations
In Europe, Britain has not improved its childhood mortality figures. They have since 1970 to 2010 experienced a fall in global ranking from 12th to 33rd position. However, Portugal made the most progress. They have moved from 74th to 10th position for the same time period. This represents a fall in death per thousands equivalent to 74 to 3.3 deaths per 1,000 live births.
In the world, Singapore ranked 1st having the least mortality rate for children under-five years in 2010, followed by Iceland, Sweden, Cyprus and Luxembourg. In the eastern side, the United States has experienced a fall from 20th position to 42nd for the period 1970 to 2010. The States has a mortality rate which is almost twice that of European’s average.
Countries like China, ranked 77th in 2010. They have only improved slightly during the recent years. India has practically remained stagnant at 146th to 140th for the period 1970 to 2010.
Source: Health Disease (Yahoo Health)
Wed, Jun 23, 2010
Gerontology, Health And Aging