OneWorld.net (U.S.)

OneWorld.net note: The mortality rate of children under five continues to decline, said the UN Children's Fund Friday, but malnutrition remains a major problem among women and children.

• A woman holds her infant at a UNICEF-supported community health post in the Northern Province of Sierra Leone, which has the worst under-five mortality rate in the world. © UNICEFPneumonia, malaria, diarrhoea, AIDS and vaccine-preventable disease like measles are the primary causes of child mortality, writes UNICEF. "To ensure further declines in child mortality in the future, UNICEF is calling for a greater focus on newborn and maternal health, as well as strengthening basic health systems in areas where young children are at risk," adds the organization.

• Both John McCain and Barack Obama have pledged to make substantial commitments to global health, including reversing the spread of HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis, eradicating malaria, improving child and maternal health, and ensuring access to food and clean water. Click here for a brief look at the differences in their proposals from the Global Health Council.

Releasing Declining Numbers for Child Mortality, UNICEF Calls for Increased Efforts to Save Children’s Lives

From: UNICEF

September 12, 2008

NEW YORK/GENEVA, 12 September 2008 - UNICEF today released new figures that show the rate of deaths of children under five continued to decline in 2007.

The new estimates show a 27 per cent decline in the under-five mortality rate, from 93 deaths per 1,000 live births in 1990, to 68 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2007. In industrialized countries there are, on average, just six deaths for every 1,000 live births.

According to this data, 12.7 million children under five died around the world in 1990, and in 2007 child deaths declined to about 9.2 million.

"Since 1960, the global under-five mortality rate has declined more than 60 per cent, and the new data shows that downward trend continues," said UNICEF Executive Director Ann M. Veneman. "While progress has been made, much remains to be done."

Under-nutrition is a contributing cause of more than one-third of the 9.2 million under-five deaths worldwide. While there has also been progress in reducing the percentage of under age five children who are underweight since 1990, an estimated 148 million children in the developing world remain undernourished. To ensure these children have the opportunity to survive, efforts to address the nutritional needs of women, infants, and children must be accelerated.

A number of countries have made particularly good progress in reducing under-five mortality, including Lao PDR, Bangladesh, Bolivia and Nepal, each of which has reduced their under-five mortality rates by more than 50 percent since 1990. These countries are on track to reach the MDG target to reduce by two-thirds the under-five mortality rate between 1990 and 2015.

There has also been significant progress in parts of Africa. Eritrea's under-five mortality rate declined by 52 per cent between 1990 and 2007. In Malawi, Mozambique, Niger, and Ethiopia child mortality rates have declined by more than 40 per cent across the same period.

However the highest child mortality is still found in Africa. In Sierra Leone, the country with the worst under-five mortality rate in the world, 262 out of every 1,000 children die before their fifth birthday.

"Recent data also indicate encouraging improvements in many of the basic health interventions, such as early and exclusive breast feeding, measles immunization, Vitamin A supplementation, the use of insecticide-treated nets to prevent malaria, and prevention and treatment of HIV/AIDS," said Veneman. "These interventions are expected to result in further declines in child mortality over the coming years."

For more information about the child mortality rate, visit UNICEF.