Wednesday 6 August 2008


INDIA, CHINA MUST BOOST SPENDING TO CUT CHILD DEATHS, UN SAYS

Ed Johnson

Bloomberg, August 6, 2008

India, China and other countries in the Asia-Pacific region must boost public health spending by at least 2 percent in order to reduce the number of children dying before their fifth birthday, the United Nations said.

In 2006, 2.1 million children under five years old died in India, one-fifth of the world's total, and 415,000 died in China, the UN Children's Fund, Unicef, said in a report.

Poor neonatal care, pneumonia, diarrhea and malnutrition are among the major causes of child deaths in the region, according to the report. Public health spending in the Asia-Pacific is on average 1.9 percent of gross domestic product, compared with the world average of 5.1 percent, Unicef said.

China and India are the world's two most populated countries, with 1.3 billion and 1.1 billion people respectively. China is the world's fastest-growing major economy, expanding at 10.1 percent in the second quarter, followed by India, whose economy grew 8.8 percent in the quarter ended March 31.

Both countries have made "great strides'' in tackling infant mortality, according to the report.

China reduced the under-five child mortality rate by 80 percent between 1970 and 2006, to 24 per 1,000 live births from 118, the UN said. In India, the rate dropped by 60 percent, to 76 per 1,000 live births in 2006 from 236 in 1960.

(...) [artículo aquí]

No comments: