The British journal, The Lancet has published a series of articles it describes as "highlighting one of the greatest catastrophes in global public health--the death every year of 4 million infants who die in the first month of life."
A note from Lancet editor Richard Horton reads, in part: "Eight million children are either stillborn or die each year within the first month of life. This figure never makes news. The issue of child survival is a moral as well as a health barometer of our times. The aim of the present Lancet series (Neonatal Survival) is to erase the excuse of ignorance for public and political inaction once and for all. We believe that this is the most important public health
campaign we have taken part in for a generation."
I agree that these infant mortality rates are horrifying...and wondered how those deaths are distributed. Disproportionately among the impoverished? In developing nations?
Why isn't this newsworthy? And why aren't we seeing more interventions?
Some health campaigns that have a positive impact on early death have been relatively inexpensive and simple. An example was the SIDS campaign to get parents to turn babies over on their backs. Of course, not all problems related to infant deaths can be addressed so easily, but...
Posted by: Marilyn Meinke-Murphy at March 6, 2005 02:39 PM