* 11 percent of babies born premature in 2010, 1.1 million died * Experts estimate 75 percent could be saved * U.S. rate at 12 pct, fueled by later births, fertility treatments NEW YORK, May 2 (Reuters) - The world's developed countries have seen their average rate of premature births double to 6 percent since 1995, despite efforts to reduce the phenomenon, according to a report released on Wednesday. Worldwide, 15 million of the...
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New UN-backed report calls for action to prevent millions of preterm births
-The United Nations Some 15 million babies worldwide – more than one in ten births – are born too early, according to a new United Nations-backed report, released today, which calls for steps such as ensuring the requisite medicines and equipment and training health staff to promote child survival. “All newborns are vulnerable, but preterm babies are acutely so,” says Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, who wrote the foreword to the report, entitled...
More »India Serves Up Costly Cocktail of Vaccines by Ranjit Devraj
Ignoring widespread concern over the safety, efficacy and cost of pentavalent vaccines, India’s central health ministry has, this month, approved inclusion of the prophylactic cocktail in the universal immunisation programme in seven of its provinces. Pentavalent vaccine doses, a cocktail of five antigens in a single shot, confers immunity against five paediatric diseases - diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus, hepatitis B and haemophilus influenza type b (Hib), with the last one considered particularly...
More »Vidarbha, plagued by farm suicides, battles Child Deaths too-Meena Menon
The Vidarbha region of Maharashtra which has gained notoriety for its farm suicides, is also reporting a high incidence of Child Deaths. Data compiled under the Right to Information (RTI) Act shows that in Yavatmal district alone 565 children below five died due to various causes between January and September 2011. In addition, the district reported 489 still births for the same period. Yavatmal is second only to Amravati district which...
More »Measles strategy misses targets by James Gallagher
-BBC Global efforts to cut the number of deaths from measles have fallen short of World Health Organization (WHO) targets. An analysis published in the Lancet said deaths had fallen by 74% between 2000 and 2010, but the target was 90%. Outbreaks in Africa and delays in vaccination programmes in India have stalled progress, researchers say. A new campaign to tackle the disease has been launched, which will combine measles and rubella jabs. In 2000...
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