Globally about 40 per cent deaths in children under five years old were estimated to occur in the first month of life, most of which occurred in the first week. For the first time, the report provided the major causes of these deaths among newborns. The report also showed that deaths among children under five had dropped by 30 per cent from 12.5 million in 1990 to 8.8 million in 2008.
With five years remaining to the MDG deadline in 2015 there are some striking improvements in some health MDGs, the percentage of underweight children is estimated to have declined from 25 per cent in 1990 to 16 per cent in 2010. HIV infections dropped 16 per cent between 2001 and 2008 and the percentage of the worlds population with access to safe water has increased from 77 per cent to 87 per cent, enough to reach the MDG target, noted the report.
Ties Boerma, Director of WHOs Department of Health Statistics and Informatics said the global results masked inequalities between countries and regions. Some countries had been held back by conflict, poor governance, or humanitarian and economic crises. “But several low-income countries have made substantial progress in reducing child mortality, including Zimbabwe, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Mozambique and Rwanda,”
Few developing countries are on track to reach the MDG target for maternal mortality. However, there is evidence of some progress in countries such as China and Egypt, added Boerma. Boerma also hinted that countries must embark on investment programmes in order to create a better society. But measurement is a challenge and investments are needed in building better country systems to accurately identify and record maternal deaths.”
The challenge is also to assist countries in sub-Saharan Africa and parts of South-East Asia to get access to interventions such as insecticide-treated bed nets to prevent malaria, or prevent malnutrition. Under nutrition is the underlying cause of a third of child deaths, The report also showed that nine countries in Africa and 29 outside Africa were on course to meet the MDG target for reducing malaria, but in 2008 an estimated 243 million cases of malaria still caused 863 000 deaths, mostly in children under five years old.
It also revealed that new HIV infections had been reduced globally by 16 per cent, between 2001 and 2008. In 2008, 2.7million people were newly infected with HIV, more than 4 million people in low- and middle-income countries were receiving antiretroviral treatment by the end of 2008 but that left more than 5 million people untreated. The report said existing cases of tuberculosis (TB) were declining as more people were being successfully treated. TB mortality among HIV-negative people had dropped from 1.7 million in 2001 to 1.4 million in 2008.
Post published in: News