Less than half the world is likely to meet target for cutting child deaths
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《英国医生杂志》
According to a progress report from UNICEF published this week, less than half the world is on track to meet the United Nations?target to cut death rates among children aged under 5 years. The report, Progress for Children, also says that an estimated 11 million children are still dying needlessly every year.
In September 2000, the United Nations set several millennium development goals, one of which was to reduce the 1990 death rates among the under 5s by two thirds by 2015梐 fall from 93 to 31 in every 1000. Ninety countries are expected to meet this target, 53 of which are developing nations. But 98 countries are still falling far short of the 4.4% annual progress needed, says the report, most of them failing to manage even 2%. And at the current rate of progress, by 2015 the average global rate will have dropped by only around a quarter.
Progress has also been uneven. Deaths among the under 5s in Latin American and Caribbean countries fell by over a third between 1990 and 2002. But in sub-Saharan Africa, where almost half of all deaths in this age group since 1990 have occurred, rates have remained largely stagnant and are now 174 per 1000.
In Iraq, the country where the least progress has been made, child mortality has increased by an average of 7.6% every year since 1990, and in Botswana it has increased by an average of 5.3%. Zimbabwe, Cambodia, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan also featured in the top 10 countries where least progress has been made. Malta has made the best progress, with an average yearly fall in mortality from 1990 to 2002 of 8.6%. In Malaysia the equivalent figure was 8%, and in Egypt it was 7.8%.
In 2002 the average global death rate for the under 5s was 82 per 1000 compared with 7 per 1000 in industrialised countries. But in Sierra Leone the absolute rate was 284 per 1000―the highest in the world.
Inadequate health care for mothers and babies before and after birth causes the largest proportion of preventable deaths in young children, says the report, with infectious and parasitic diseases the next biggest killers. Malnutrition and inadequate sanitation and clean water contribute to more than half of these deaths, while armed conflict and social unrest also take their toll.
"It is incredible that in an age of technological and medical marvels, child survival is so tenuous in so many places, especially for the poor and marginalised," said executive director of UNICEF Carol Bellamy, at the report抯 launch in New York. "The world has the tools to improve child survival, if only it would use them," she added.(London Caroline White)
In September 2000, the United Nations set several millennium development goals, one of which was to reduce the 1990 death rates among the under 5s by two thirds by 2015梐 fall from 93 to 31 in every 1000. Ninety countries are expected to meet this target, 53 of which are developing nations. But 98 countries are still falling far short of the 4.4% annual progress needed, says the report, most of them failing to manage even 2%. And at the current rate of progress, by 2015 the average global rate will have dropped by only around a quarter.
Progress has also been uneven. Deaths among the under 5s in Latin American and Caribbean countries fell by over a third between 1990 and 2002. But in sub-Saharan Africa, where almost half of all deaths in this age group since 1990 have occurred, rates have remained largely stagnant and are now 174 per 1000.
In Iraq, the country where the least progress has been made, child mortality has increased by an average of 7.6% every year since 1990, and in Botswana it has increased by an average of 5.3%. Zimbabwe, Cambodia, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan also featured in the top 10 countries where least progress has been made. Malta has made the best progress, with an average yearly fall in mortality from 1990 to 2002 of 8.6%. In Malaysia the equivalent figure was 8%, and in Egypt it was 7.8%.
In 2002 the average global death rate for the under 5s was 82 per 1000 compared with 7 per 1000 in industrialised countries. But in Sierra Leone the absolute rate was 284 per 1000―the highest in the world.
Inadequate health care for mothers and babies before and after birth causes the largest proportion of preventable deaths in young children, says the report, with infectious and parasitic diseases the next biggest killers. Malnutrition and inadequate sanitation and clean water contribute to more than half of these deaths, while armed conflict and social unrest also take their toll.
"It is incredible that in an age of technological and medical marvels, child survival is so tenuous in so many places, especially for the poor and marginalised," said executive director of UNICEF Carol Bellamy, at the report抯 launch in New York. "The world has the tools to improve child survival, if only it would use them," she added.(London Caroline White)