Objectif 4 : Réduire la mortalité infantile

Africa Makes Progress On Child Mortality, But Slowly

Africa continues to make progress in reducing the under-five mortality ratio (U5MR) but progress is slow.

Egypt has already surpassed the target of reducing the U5MR by two-thirds between 1990 and 2007, while Cape Verde, Eritrea, Libya, Mauritius, Morocco, Seychelles and Tunisia are on track to do so.

In 14 other countries, the U5MR has dropped rapidly by 50 percentage points or more from formerly very high levels.

However, current progress rates are too slow to reach the target – in four countries it was less than 10%.  In some countries, the U5MR actually increased between 1990 and 2008 – Chad, Congo, Kenya, South Africa and Zimbabwe. The West Africa and Central Africa sub-regions registered the highest U5MR for 2007.

In order to improve matters, efforts must be concentrated on the three major diseases responsible for more than half under-five deaths in Africa – diarrheal diseases, pneumonia and malaria.

On the subsidiary target of reducing the infant mortality rate (IMR), the number of children dying before their first birthday, the IMR shows a declining trend in most African countries.

The vast majority of countries showed a decline.  Somalia and the DRC displayed no change, but the IMR actually increased in Kenya, the Republic of Congo, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Chad and Lesotho.

High IMR in Central Africa could be due to presence of malaria and political conflict, while high rates in Southern Africa could be related to the high levels of HIV there.

On the subsidiary target of the share of one-year-old children immunized against measles, 13 countries reported an immunization rate of 90% or above, with only two countries below 50% coverage.

Overall, countries are doing relatively well on this indicator.  Most are well above the regional average of 73% (WHO, 2010), with only 18 countries below it.  But vigilance is critical for securing the progress already achieved to prevent reversals.

Here, it is important for African countries and their partners to maintain funding for measles prevention programs.