 |
| IMAGES |
|
|
 |
| Simon Zo, Reuters |
|
Newborn babies at a children's hospital in northwest China. Since 1960, the infant mortality rate in East Asia has fallen by a factor of four. (FPinfomart: Restricted, Canada.com: Allowed) |
|
|
|
For the next 700 words or so, forget airplane crashes,
terrorist attacks and earthquakes. There is plenty of bad news out there. But
get past the front page, and you occasionally stumble on a story that puts
things in perspective. The human condition, it turns out, is not so grim.
Last week, the United Nations Children's Fund -- better known as UNICEF --
released a report detailing the latest survival statistics for children under
the age of five. The figures are eye-popping.
In 2006, for the first time in recorded history, the annual global tally of
children who died before their fifth birthday was less than 10 million.
Obviously, 9.7 million child deaths -- the reported figure--is 9.7 million
agonizing personal tragedies too many. But consider that as recently as 1990,
the figure was 13 million -- even though the world's population was then 20%
smaller than it is today. In recent decades, literally tens of millions of
children who otherwise would have died have been saved by modern technology,
more enlightened public health practices and improved access to medical
treatment.
In sheer humanitarian terms, this result is nothing short of epic.
The figures become even more impressive when one converts the global data to
survival percentages. In 1960, on average, almost one baby in five died before
his fifth birthday -- a figure similar to that observed in Europe during the
Elizabethan era. Today, just two generations later, the global figure is closer
to one in 14.
The improvement has spanned every region, including the industrialized West,
where the under-five mortality rate is now just 0.6% -- meaning only about one
in 170 babies doesn't make it to his of her fifth birthday, down from one-in-25
in 1960.
Not that there still isn't plenty of room for improvement. About a third of
global under-five child deaths arise due to neonatal causes, which may be
prohibitively difficult and costly to address in developing nations. (Even in
advanced countries such as Canada, tragic cases of neonatal abnormality arise
whereby doctors are powerless to keep a baby alive.) But the same is hardly true
of the pneumonia, measles, malaria and diarrhoeal disease that collectively
cause more than 4.5 million under-five deaths every year, almost half of the
total global tally. Most of these deaths could be prevented if parents had
better access to amenities that Canadians take for granted -- such as clean
water, refrigeration and antibiotics. With Western-quality health standards
continuing to make their way into South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa -- two
regions which together account for 80% of all the world's under-five deaths --
the global child-mortality numbers could be halved within a generation.
The UNICEF report should be required reading for all those who believe
globalization is enriching wealthy nations at the expense of the developing
world. In Latin America, which in recent decades has made a stunning
transformation from protectionist, strongman-led autocracy to (generally)
free-market democracy, child mortality has fallen by a factor of six since 1960.
In the tiger economies of Asia, it's fallen by a factor of four. Far from
representing forms of north-on-south "exploitation," free trade, capitalism and
Western technologies have given the spark of life to millions of Third World
children otherwise destined for early graves.
Child mortality is not the only statistic we use to measure the health and
wealth of the human race, of course: Indices such as GDP, lifespan,
productivity, wealth inequality and the like are also worth monitoring. But
child mortality stands above and apart. Whatever the gigantic differences that
separate the world's nations, religions and cultures, our common evolutionary
programming ensures that an overpowering desire to protect our offspring remains
a truly universal constant. Indeed, when all is said and done, raising healthy,
successful children is the project that will define most of us as we drift off
into our sunsets. Child mortality therefore measures the success of a society in
what, in existential terms, is the most important human mission there is.
That's why the UNICEF report represents such profoundly good news. The fact
that we have been able to use our brains to diminish the reaper's toll of small
children so radically provides abundant hope that, despite so much evidence to
the contrary, humans can make life in this vale of tears slightly less tearful.
jkay@nationalpost.com
Illustration:
• Black & White Photo: Simon Zo,
Reuters / Newborn babies at a children's hospital in northwest China. Since
1960, the infant mortality rate in East Asia has fallen by a factor of
four.
Idnumber: 200709180060
Edition: National
Story
Type: Column; Statistics
Length: 721 words
Keywords: INFANT MORTALITY;
REPORTS; STATISTICS
Illustration Type: P
PRODUCTION FIELDS
NDATE: 20070918
NUPDATE: 20070918
DOB: 20070918
POSITION: 1
