Child mortality rates drop by a third, UNICEF

New York, 20 Sept-(ANA)-Fewer children are dying before they reach their fifth birthdays, with the total number of under-five deaths falling by one third in the past two decades, fresh estimates by the United Nations Children’s Fund, UNICEF have revealed.

 Between 1990 and 2009, the number of children below the age of five who died

annually fell from 12.4 million to 8.1 million. The global under-five mortality

rate dipped from 89 deaths per 1,000 live births to 60 during that period.

 “The good news is that these estimates suggest that 12,000 fewer children are

dying each day around the world compared to 1990,” UNICEF said in a ahead of next week’s UN-hosted world leaders’ summit in New York on the Millennium Development Goals. (ANA)

FA/ANA/20 September 2010---------