Child Mortality Rates Are Falling, But Not Fast Enough

Statistics show that childhood mortality rates are falling. A new report compiled by the United Nations (UN) shows that some of its agencies, such as Unicef, and the World Bank, report an almost 50 percent reduction rate since 1990. However, despite improvements, the report also notes that these rates are not falling quite fast enough. Many children under the age of five are still dying  quickly and in large numbers.

The report found that the gap in death rates between rich and poor households had fallen in every region of the world, except sub-Saharan Africa. There, childhood mortality rates for children under the age of five in the highest at 92 deaths per 1,000 births. African countries have some of the highest children mortality rates throughout the world--with India and Nigeria making up one-third of the toal number of deaths throughout the world.

The leading causes of death throughout the world included inadequate nutrition, compilations during pregnancy, labor and/or delivery, pneumonia, diarrhea and malaria. Throughout the past two decades, these causes have been addressed more effectively with improved access to treatments, vaccinations and preventive care.

"There has been dramatic and accelerating progress in reducing mortality among children, and the data prove that success is possible even for poorly resourced countries," said Dr. Chopra via the New York Times.

Furthermore, the UN stated that based on how slowly the death rate is falling, the agency's original goal to reduce the mortality rate by two-thirds in 2-15 is no longer attainable and estimated that this goal could be reached by 2026.

More information regarding the report can be found here.