WHAT a difference a bed net and a few vitamins make. The number of has dropped to below 10 million per year for the first time since records began in 1960. The UN children鈥檚 fund UNICEF reports that in 1960, on average 184 children died for every thousand born. Last year it was 72 鈥� a fall of 61 per cent.
The riskiest region to be born is west and central Africa, where 186 children per thousand do not reach the age of five, though even there mortality has fallen by nearly 40 per cent since 1960.
Regions with the greatest fall 鈥� Latin America, the Caribbean, east Asia and eastern Europe 鈥� also had the greatest , which have dropped by a third across the developing world since the 1970s. Likewise, regions where child mortality has declined least are also those where birth rates have declined least.
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鈥淩egions with the greatest fall in infant mortality also had the greatest fall in fertility鈥�
UNICEF attributes most of the fall in deaths to cheap measures like antimalarial bed nets, vitamin A supplements, measles vaccination, and increases in breastfeeding.
