Under-five mortality drops in last two decades

The under-five mortality rate dropped globally by more than one-third, from 88 deaths per 1,000 live births to 57, reported United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (Unicef) and World Health Organisation for the period 1990 to 2010.
The latest worldwide estimates released yesterday showed the number of under-five children dying each year declined from more than 12 million in 1990 to 7.6 million in 2010.
However, this progress is insufficient to meet the Millennium Development Goal 4, which calls for a two-third reduction in the rate by 2015.
Under-five deaths are increasingly concentrated in sub-Saharan Africa and Southern Asia.
“Focusing greater investment on the most disadvantaged communities will help us save more children's lives,” said Anthony Lake, Unicef executive director.
The report revealed from the Unicef New York office shows that newborns and infants are most prone to the risk of dying, but there has been less progress for them than within the under-five age category.
The new estimates are published in the 2011 report, Levels & Trends in Child Mortality, issued by the UN Inter-agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation.