The fee of child mortality is a social indicator represented by the number of children who died before reaching one year of life for every thousand children born alive in a period of one year. It is an important indicator of the quality of health services, basic sanitation and education in a city, country or region.
The infant mortality rate is expressed per thousand and is represented, for example:
Infant mortality rate in Brazil: 15‰ (15 out of every thousand children)
Causes of infant mortality
Even though it is an important index, measuring infant mortality is an implicit inconvenience, as it is a question about the responsibility that society and the State have in this context. The main factors that promote child mortality are:
the lack of assistance and education for pregnant women;
lack of medical follow-up;
deficiency in health care;
malnutrition;
absence of effective public policies in education;
absence or deficiency in sanitation.
This last factor is even more aggravating when untreated water and sewage cause water contamination and, by consequence, of food, causing diseases such as hepatitis, malaria, yellow fever, cholera, diarrhea, among others. These diseases together with malnutrition pictures are fatal.
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Infant mortality is such a significant social aspect that United Nations (UN) placed the reduction of infant mortality in the world among the main 8 Millennium Development Goals (set of goals to improve the standard of living of people around the world, especially in poor countries).
In general, in economically developed countries, infant mortality rates are significantly low. In contrast, in poor countries, we still find very high infant mortality rates, as is the case in Afghanistan, Chad, Angola, Guinea-Bissau, Nigeria and Somalia, which have more than 100 deaths of children under one year of life for every thousand children born alive within a period of one year. year.
Although, according to the UN, world child mortality averages have fallen by almost 50% in the last two decades, the problem it is still very serious in many nations and must be overcome, especially through the effective implementation of public education and health.
By Amarolina Ribeiro
Graduated in Geography
Would you like to reference this text in a school or academic work? Look:
RIBEIRO, Amarolina. "What is infant mortality?"; Brazil School. Available in: https://brasilescola.uol.com.br/o-que-e/geografia/o-que-e-mortalidade-infantil.htm. Accessed on June 28, 2021.
