UNICEF Calls on Vietnam to Promote Progress in Reducing Child Mortality

The 2012 UNICEF Progress Report on Committing to Child Survival: A Promise Renewed examines trends in child mortality estimates since 1990, and shows that major reductions have been made in under-five mortality rates in all regions and diverse countries. Data released by UNICEF and the UN Inter-agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation show that the number of children under the age of five dying globally fell from nearly 12 million in 1990 to an estimated 6.9 million in 2011.

 

Vietnam has made impressive progress in reducing the mortality rate of children under five over the past decades. The number of deaths among children under 5 fell significantly from 66 children out of 1,000 infants in 2000, to 16 children in 2011. Despite much progress, Vietnam still sees 87 child deaths under age five because of avoidable causes.

“Children from poor rural areas are statistically much more likely to die before their fifth birthday than those in urban areas, while disadvantaged or marginalised populations often bear the burden of child deaths. This is especially true in Vietnam. Here, an ethnic minority child under five is nearly four times more likely to die before their fifth birthday than a non-ethnic minority one,” said Lotta Sylwander, UNICEF Representative in Vietnam.

 

She said: “Inexpensive solutions are within reach, such as vaccines against measles, polio and mother-to-child transmission of HIV; oral-rehydration salts and zinc to treat diarrhoea; antibiotics for pneumonia; and oxytocin preventing women from bleeding to death after childbirth. The challenge is to grant access to these solutions to all children.”