ZCZC
BSS-18
CHILDREN-MORTALITY
Children’s risk of dying is highest in first 28 days of birth: WHO
DHAKA, June 24, 2018 (BSS/UNICEF FEATURE) – A child’s risk of dying is the
highest in the first 28 days of life while improving the quality of antenatal
care at the time of birth and postnatal care for mothers and their newborns
are very essential to prevent these untimely demise.
Globally, 2.6 million children died in the first month of life in 2016.
There are approximately 7, 000 newborn deaths every day, amounting to 46% of
all child deaths under the age of 5-years, said the World Health Organization
(WHO) in a report.
The priority that most low-income countries give to neonatal mortality, now
constitutes more than 40% of deaths to children younger than 5 years, is a
stumbling block to the world achieving the child survival Millennium
Development Goals (MDGs). Bangladesh is an exception to this attention
proving itself able enough to bring down the rate of infant mortality.
In Bangladesh, the infant mortality rate went down by 73% in the past 2.5
decades, a UNICEF report said. During this period, the world has made a
significant progress in saving the young children’s lives. Bangladesh has
experienced a significant reduction of child mortality over this period,
which has helped achieve the Millennium Development Goal 4 (MDG 4) target.
But the mortality among the under-5 children must be further reduced for a
substantial effort to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
target, reads the report suggesting, at this stage it is hence important to
explore the trend and determinants of under-5 mortality to reduce the
vulnerability of child’s survival.
The frailty models revealed that the combined effect of birth order and
preceding birth interval length, sex of the child, maternal age at birth,
mother’s working status and parental education were the important
determinants associated with the risk of child mortality. The risk of
mortality also varied across divisions with Sylhet being the most vulnerable
one.
Generating more Political Priority for Neonatal Mortality Reduction in
Bangladesh is earnestly necessary as the political scientists have a long-
standing interest in how and why some issues come to attract the attention
and resources of the policymakers.
The social scientists who investigate health policymaking in low-income
countries like Bangladesh also have considered agenda-setting processes in
this important field.
According to WHO, Bangladesh has registered a substantive acceleration,
experiencing a remarkable change in child mortality rates over the last few
decades. Although, WHO says, child mortality rate is decreasing over time,
Bangladesh has to further reduce child’s death to obtain the Sustainable
Development Goals (SDGs).
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