降低儿童死亡率,好好活下去

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UNICEF says the death rate for children under the age of five has fallen 28% since 1990. Experts credit the drop to improvements in public health measures. These include vaccination[接种疫苗] campaigns and the use of bed nets chemically treated to kill mosquitoes that spread

malaria[疟疾].

Still, Brian Hansford at the United Nations Children’s Fund says more work remains.

Hansford: Certainly the good news is that the rate of deaths of children under five years of age continued to decline in 2008. The absolute number of child deaths declined to an estimated 8.8 million from 12.5 million in 1990. Compared to 1990, 10,000 fewer children are dying each day. The bad news is that an annual death total of 8.8 million is still a tragedy, and so there’s still much to do.

One of the U.N. Millennium Development Goals is to reduce the under-five death rate by two-thirds by 2015. One country that could reach this goal is Malawi. In 1990, there were 225 deaths for every 1000 live births. The estimate for last year was 100 deaths.

UNICEF spokesman Brian Hansford says pneumonia[肺炎] and diarrhea[腹泻] remain the world’s two greatest killers of young children. 93% of the deaths happen in Africa and Asia.

A separate new study looked at deaths worldwide in young people age 10 to 24. It found that 97% happen in low and middle income countries. And two out of every five are the result of injuries and violence.

Professor George Patton at Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne, Australia, was the lead author.

Patton: In high income countries such as the United States, the U.K. and Australia, death rates are around 45 per hundred thousand per year. In sub-Saharan Africa we have the highest death rates in the world, and they are around seven times higher than that.

The study found that worldwide, more than two and a half million people age 10 to 24 died in 2004. Nearly two-thirds were in sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia.

Conditions related to pregnancy and childbirth were a leading cause of deaths in females. But for both sexes combined, the leading killer in this age group was traffic

accidents. 10% of all the deaths were blamed on road injuries. Next came suicide and violence. Also in the top ten causes were infections, including tuberculosis[结核病] and H.I.V./AIDS, as well as drowning and fire-related deaths. The study appears in the journal The Lancet.

联合国儿童基金会(UNICEF)称,1990年至今,五周岁以下儿童的死亡率已经下降了28%。专家们把其归功于公共卫生措施的改善,其中包括疫苗接种的普及和蚊帐的使用。这些蚊帐经过化学处理,能够杀死传播疟疾的蚊子。

不过,联合国儿童基金会的布莱恩・汉斯福特表示,革命尚未成功。

汉斯福特:当然,好消息是在2008年,五周岁以下儿童的死亡率持续下降。儿童死亡人数的绝对数已经从1990年的1250万人下降到约880万人。与1990年相比,每天死亡的儿童人数下降了一万。不过,坏消息是,每年880万的死亡总数仍然是一个悲剧,所以我们还有很长的路要走。

联合国新千年人类发展目标之一就是在2015年将五周岁以下儿童的死亡率减少三分之二。其中一个能够完成目标的国家是马拉维。在1990年,该国每1000个新生儿就有225个夭折,而去年(2007年)为100人。

联合国儿童基金会发言人布莱恩・汉斯福称肺炎和腹泻仍然是幼童的两大杀手。93%的儿童死亡发生在非洲和亚洲。

另一项独立研究调查了世界范围内年龄介于10到24周岁的年轻人的死亡率。研究发现97%的年轻人死亡发生在中低收入国家。其中五分之二由创伤和暴力所致。

澳大利亚墨尔本皇家儿童医院的乔治・巴顿教授是该研究论文的主要作者。

巴顿:在诸如美国、英国和澳大利亚等高收入国家,死亡率大约为每年十万分之四十五。撒哈拉以南的非洲地区是全世界年轻人死亡率最高的地方,约是前者的七倍。

研究发现,就世界范围来看,2004年有超过250万10至24周岁的人死亡,近三分之二发生在撒哈拉以南的非洲地区和东南亚。

怀孕及生育条件(不佳)是导致妇女死亡的主要原因。不过,不论男性还是女性,这个年龄层的头号杀手是交通事故――10%的死亡事件要归罪于交通意外受伤。其次是自杀和暴力事件。年轻人十大死亡原因中还包括传染病(例如结核病和爱滋病)、溺水和与火灾相关的死亡。该研究结果发表在《柳叶刀》杂志上。

相关链接

2000年,在世界进入新千年之际召开的联合国大会通过了《联合国千年宣言》(United Nations Millennium Declaration),宣言确定了到2015年应当实现的千年发展目标(Millennium Development Goals,简称MDG),并使用8项目标和48项指标来监测进展。这些目标是:

1、消除极度贫困和饥饿。(Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger.)

2、普及全球初等教育。(Achieve universal primary education.)

3、促进性别平等和提高妇女权力。(Promote gender equality and empower women.)

4、减少儿童死亡率。(Reduce child mortality.)

5、提高母亲的健康水平。(Improve maternal health.)

6、与艾滋病、疟疾和其他疾病作斗争。(Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases.)

7、保证环境的可持续发展。(Ensure environmental sustainability.)

8、为促进发展建立全球性的合作关系。(Develop a global partnership for development.)