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Sub-Saharan Africa Has Highest Infant Mortality: UN

by VR Sreeraman on Nov 11 2007 1:14 PM

Nearly five million children under the age of five die each year in sub-Saharan Africa, with 25 percent of them losing lives at birth, according to Barbara Beintein, UNICEF's Africa director.

"This region has recorded the highest infant mortality rate in the world, and also the lowest progress since 1990," she said here Thursday at the 4th Congress of the Association of Franco-Phone Africa Paediatricians.

During the last 15 years, Africa has registered a "slight reduction" of 3 percent, she said. "If serious progress is not achieved in good time, Africa will not be in a position to attain the millennium development goals in the health sector."

Source-IANS
SRM/V


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