Renata Giraldi Reporter Agência Brasil
Brasília – The latest Unicef report on infant mortality shows that over the last two decades Brazil was one of the four countries that made the most progress worldwide in reducing deaths among children below the age of five. The report ranks 195 countries and found that only Turkey, Peru and El Salvador did better than Brazil during the period.
In 1990, Brazil had an infant mortality rate of 58 per 1,000. In 2011, the rate was 16 per 1,000.
The document says that in 1990, 12 million children below the age of 5 were dying annually, mostly from diarrhea, pneumonia and other unspecified childhood diseases. In 2011, the number worldwide had fallen to 6.9 million, although problems remain with preventable diseases, according to Unicef.
The document, entitled 2012 Progress Report on Committing to the Survival of Children: A Renewed Promise (in Portuguese: “Relatório de Progresso 2012, intitulado O Compromisso com a Sobrevivência da Criança: Uma Promessa Renovada”) can be seen at the Unicef website: www.unicef.org
Allen Bennett – translator/editor The News in English
