Sources: BBC, The Lancet,
22 September 2011
Just nine of 137 developing countries are set to achieve Millennium Development Goals (MDG) 4 & 5 on improving child and maternal health, say experts.
A report published in the Lancet predicts that no country in sub-Saharan Africa will meet the goals by 2015, and 23 countries in the region currently look unlikely to achieve MDG4 before 2040. MDG4 aims to reduce the death rate for children aged under five by two-thirds between 1990 and 2015. MDG5 aims to cut deaths among pregnant women and new mothers by three-quarters during the same timescale. However, the researchers note that annual infant deaths around the world have dropped from 11.6 million in 1990 to about 7.2 million. They argue that while many aspects of health systems ‘limit the scale-up of child and maternal interventions’, some intervention strategies, for example vaccination and vitamin A supplementation, can be delivered even in health systems with very restricted capacities. China, Rwanda and Botswana were praised for ‘substantial acceleration’ in tackling child mortality in the past decade. Countries making slower progress on the infant death target include Nigeria and Ethiopia.
22 September 2011
Just nine of 137 developing countries are set to achieve Millennium Development Goals (MDG) 4 & 5 on improving child and maternal health, say experts.
A report published in the Lancet predicts that no country in sub-Saharan Africa will meet the goals by 2015, and 23 countries in the region currently look unlikely to achieve MDG4 before 2040. MDG4 aims to reduce the death rate for children aged under five by two-thirds between 1990 and 2015. MDG5 aims to cut deaths among pregnant women and new mothers by three-quarters during the same timescale. However, the researchers note that annual infant deaths around the world have dropped from 11.6 million in 1990 to about 7.2 million. They argue that while many aspects of health systems ‘limit the scale-up of child and maternal interventions’, some intervention strategies, for example vaccination and vitamin A supplementation, can be delivered even in health systems with very restricted capacities. China, Rwanda and Botswana were praised for ‘substantial acceleration’ in tackling child mortality in the past decade. Countries making slower progress on the infant death target include Nigeria and Ethiopia.
No comments:
Post a Comment