| 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.
|
