ALL AFRICA
Niger has reduced under-five mortality. PHOTO/UNICEF/Pirozzi
Dakar — Niger has nearly halved the death rate of children below five years old since 1998, a significant drop highlighting the benefits of free universal health care for children and pregnant women as well as increased donor funding for health, The Lancet said in a study released on 20 September.
The mortality rate reduced from 226 deaths per 1,000 live births in 1998 to 128 deaths in 2009, an annual rate of decline of 5.1 percent, said the study, noting that the slump bettered the fourth Millennium Development Goal (MDG) to cut the child mortality rate by two-thirds between 1990 and 2015. Niger’s achievement was also far better than its neighbours in West Africa.
The prevalence of stunting in children aged 24-35 months slowed slightly. Wasting reduced by about 50 percent, with the largest decrease recorded among children under two. Provision of insecticide-treated bednets, improved nutrition, giving vitamin A supplements, treatment of diarrhoea, fevers, malaria, childhood pneumonia, and vaccinations also boosted child survival, the study found.
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