Child Mortality Rates Decline
The Rotarian , Rotary's Magazine, reported in the January 2010 issue that today, 10,000 fewer children will die than on a typical day in 1990, and public health experts credit the decline to inexpensive interventions such as immunizations, vitamin A supplements, and insecticide-treated bed nets. The mortality rate for children under five has dropped by more than 25%, from 90 deaths per 1,000 live births in 1990 to 65 per 1,000 in 2008, according to UNICEF in September.
"These new figures underscore the importance of the work that Rotary does," says 2008-09 RI (Rotary International) President Dong Kurn Lee, who focused on child mortality. "The great majority of child deaths are preventable, and most of them can be prevented with relatively inexpensive interventions – something as simple as a water filter, antibiotics, or a trained birth attendant."
Despite the improvement, 8.8 million children under five still die each year, with 40 percent of those deaths occurring in the Democratic Republic of Congo,
"It is important to recognize the progress we've made, and how we've made that progress," Lee says. "But we also need to acknowledge that there is still a great deal left to be done in the area of child mortality – and that there is a very great deal that we Rotarians can and should be doing."
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