Childhood Mortality In Basrah

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Despite the fact that Millennium goal 4 aims to cut child mortality by two third by 2015 and that childhood mortality has declined from 87/1000 live births in 1990 to 5 1/1000 live births in 2011especially for the under five mortality across the world , mortality rates remained very high in the African countries in the sub-Saharan region which have the highest rates. The under 5 mortality rate actually increased in 14 countries across the world, nine of them are in sub-Saharan region.(4-5) Childhood mortality is an important indicator of population development, health and health care. According to the UNICEF report on the state of the world's children 2008: (14) childhood mortality: 1. Measure an outcome of development of a nation. 2. Is…show more content…
The cause of death in children is somewhat different in different age groups. These variations reflect the underlining package of conditions and risk factors as well as the availability of effective health care. For example the leading causes of death in the under five group are pneumonia, prematurity, birth asphyxia, diarrhea and malnutrition. The pattern in Basrah seems not different but two features are clearly demonstrated in this study in Basrah. The first is that perinatal conditions and infection are major killers. The second is that the probability of child death in the first year and first five years is substantial, some of which may be preventable. A substantial proportion of deaths in Basrah governorate were seen in children particularly the group aged less than five years. Perinatal conditions, bacterial infection, congenital anomalies, accidents and disease of the circulatory system were the five leading causes. These five causes accounted for 72.8% of all deaths in children over the period 2008-2013. At least two groups are preventable causes; infection and accidents but unfortunately these two major causes still operating and accidents might be increasing in deed. Regarding the magnitude of mortality it is clear that childhood mortality in Basrah is lower than countries which are classified as high mortality countries such as sub-Saharan countries and some Asian countries also. The mortality rate in Basrah is however not very…show more content…
No explanation could be found. It is possible that delayed registration of some childhood deaths in the years prior to 2009 were registered in 2009 but this is not verified. Causes of death As we have seen the pattern of causes of death among children was variable according to age Among infant the five leading causes were perinatal conditions, infection, congenital anomalies, disease of circulatory system and diseases of the respiratory system. Among the children aged less than five years demonstrated that the five leading causes were similar to those among infants except that the unclassified group of causes replaced circulatory system causes. In both groups, perinatal condition were substantial contributors to mortality. In older children, unfortunately, the toll of deaths is attributed to accidents of all types and tumours of all sites , a fact which indicate a a clear shift of causes of deaths from infection and malnutrition to causes of modern life. The two conditions (accidents and tumours) both deserve care by policy makers and

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