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We the Children:
The Report of the Secretary-General

Child Health Balance Sheet
Goal Gains Unfinished Business
Infant and under-five mortality: reduction by one third in infant mortality and U5MR
  • More than 60 countries achieved the goal of U5MR.

  • At the global level U5MR declined by 14 per cent.
  • U5MR rates increased in 14 countries (nine of them in sub-Saharan Africa) and were unchanged in 11 others.

  • Serious disparities remain in U5MR within countries: by income level, urban vs. rural and among minority groups.
Polio: global eradication by 2000
  • More than 175 countries are polio free.
  • Polio is still endemic in 20 countries.
Routine immunization: maintenance of a high level of immunization coverage
  • Sustained routine immunization coverage at 75 per cent (three doses of combined diphtheria/ pertussis/tetanus vaccine (DPT3).
  • Less than 50 per cent of children under one year of age in sub-Saharan Africa are immunized against DPT3.
Measles: reduction by 95 per cent in measles deaths and 90 per cent in measles cases by 1995 as a major step to global eradication in the longer run
  • Worldwide reported measles incidence has declined by nearly two thirds between 1990 and 1999.
  • In more than 15 countries, measles vaccination coverage is less than 50 per cent.
Neonatal tetanus: elimination by 1995
  • 104 of 161 developing countries have achieved the goal.

  • Deaths caused by neonatal tetanus declined by 50 per cent between 1990 and 2000.
  • 27 countries (18 in Africa) account for 90 per cent of all remaining neonatal tetanus.
Deaths due to diarrhoea: reduce them by 50 per cent
  • This goal was achieved globally, according to World Health Organization (WHO) estimates.
  • Diarrhoea remains one of the major causes of death among children.
Acute respiratory infections (ARI): reduction of ARI deaths by one third in children under five
  • ARI case management has improved at the health centre level.

  • The effectiveness of haemophilus influenzae type B and pneumococcus vaccines is established.
  • ARI remains one of the greatest causes of death among children.

  • Vertical, single-focus ARI programmes seem to have had little global impact.

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