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Child Death Rates Hit Record Low

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Los Angeles Times

Published: September 13, 2007

Worldwide deaths for children younger than 5 dropped to an estimated 9.7 million last year, the lowest worldwide levels since record-keeping began in 1960, the United Nations Children's Fund announced Wednesday.

Even as the world population has grown, the number of early childhood deaths has shrunk to less than half its modern peak in 1960, the agency found. At that time, an estimated 20 million children died before reaching their fifth birthday.

'You could say quite conclusively there are fewer children dying today than ever recorded in modern times,' said Peter Salama, chief of global health for UNICEF in New York.

Salama attributed some of the decline to broad social changes, such as decreasing poverty levels, better sanitation and higher education levels among women.

He also attributed part of the decline to wider adoption of several specific health programs advocated by UNICEF and international and local health authorities. More children, for example, are receiving vaccinations for childhood diseases such as measles. Breast-feeding is more widely practiced and the use of vitamin A supplements has helped improve children's immune systems, Salama said.

'We firmly believe this could be a tipping point ... where we may expect a real acceleration in child death declines over the coming years,' he said.

Some of the most dramatic regional declines over the past 15 years have occurred in East Asia, Latin America, the Caribbean, Central and Eastern Europe, and the former Soviet republics. Over that period, early child deaths have declined by 50 percent to 55 percent.

The rate in industrialized countries, including the United States, has held steady over the past 15 years.

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