The fee of child mortality is a social indicator represented by the number of children who died before completing one year of life per thousand children born alive within a year. It is an important indicator of the quality of health services, basic sanitation and education in a city, country or region.
The infant mortality rate is expressed per thousand and is represented, for example:
Infant mortality rate in Brazil: 15‰ (15 out of every thousand children)
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Causes of infant mortality
Even though it is an important index, measuring the mortality of babies implies an inconvenience, as it is a question about the responsibility that society and the State have in this context. The main factors that promote infant mortality are:
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the lack of assistance and instruction for pregnant women;
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lack of medical follow-up;
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deficiency in health care;
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malnutrition;
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absence of effective public policies in education;
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absence or deficiency in basic sanitation.
This last factor is even more aggravating when untreated water and sewage cause contamination of water and, consequently, food, causing diseases such as hepatitis, malaria, yellow fever, cholera, diarrhea, among others. These diseases, together with malnutrition, are fatal.
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Child mortality is such a significant social aspect that the United Nations (UN) has included the reduction of world child mortality among the main 8 Millennium Development Goals (set of goals for improving the standard of living of people around the world , especially in poor countries).
In general, in economically developed countries, infant mortality rates are significantly low. In contrast, in poor countries, we still find very high infant mortality rates, as is the case in Afghanistan, Chad, Angola, Guinea-Bissau, Nigeria and Somalia, which have numbers of more than 100 deaths of children under one year old. per 1,000 live births within a year.
Although, according to the UN, the world averages of child mortality have suffered a drop of almost 50% in the last two decades, the problem is still very serious in many nations and must be overcome, especially, through the effective implementation of public policies of education and health.
By Amarolina Ribeiro
Graduated in Geography