Child mortality among China's rural poor and its millions of migrants remains high despite overall improvements, state media quoted the WHO as saying yesterday.
The mortality rates are "still alarmingly and unacceptably high in rural areas and among migrant populations," Hans Anders Troedsson, the WHO's China representative was quoted as saying by the China Daily.
He was speaking at the launch of an annual report by the UN's Children's Fund (UNICEF) on the state of the world's children which said the problem was improving worldwide including in China.
However, the paper quoted a UNICEF China official as saying child mortality in remote and rural parts of the country remained two to five times higher than urban areas. No precise figures were immediately available from WHO or UNICEF on mortality rates for China's migrants or rural poor.
The UNICEF report said the death rate of children under five years was 24 per 1,000 live births in 2006, down from 45 per 1,000 in 1990. But the report also said about 415,000 children died in China each year, 4.3 percent of the world total.
About 10 percent of China's 1.3 billion population still live in poverty, estimates show.
An estimated 150 million people have become migrant workers, seeking jobs far from their homes and often taking their families with them. Their migrant status means they frequently have problems obtaining health care.
SPEAKING OUT: After Siranudh Scott’s allegations surfaced, celebrities and public figures took to social media to share their own experiences of sexual misconduct and abuse A high-profile alleged sexual abuse case within a wealthy Thai beer brewing family has prompted a wave of painful accounts from survivors of unconnected abuse in the conservative nation. Siranudh Scott, a member of the billionaire Thai family that founded the ubiquitous Singha beer brand, posted an emotional video this month accusing his elder brother Sunit of repeatedly abusing him when he was a teenager. Sunit, who is in his 30s, later denied the allegations in a video posted online, but Singha parent Boonrawd dismissed him from his executive role with the company on Tuesday last week. “I felt I needed to speak
SEEKING ORDER: Rodrigo Paz said that ‘anyone who wants to destroy the nation will have to deal with this president and the full force of the constitution’ Bolivian President Rodrigo Paz on Wednesday said that the nation was at a “breaking point” after nearly a month of protests that have caused shortages of food, fuel and medicine. Paz, who took office six months ago amid the worst economic crisis there in four decades, is battling a groundswell of fury over his policies. The political capital, La Paz, has been besieged by low-income workers and members of the indigenous majority calling for his resignation. “The country needs order and is reaching breaking point,” the 58-year-old said at a public event in La Paz, renewing his appeal for dialogue. On Tuesday, the Bolivian
COMMUNITY CONFLICT: Concerns about disease spread from corpses has run up against friends and families’ desire to bury their dead as infection spreads in the area Angry residents of a town at the epicenter of the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo) attacked and burned a tent that was part of a health center where people are being treated for the virus, the staff there said Saturday. It was the second such attack in the region in a week. No one was hurt in the attack, according to reports but as patients ran out to escape the fire, 18 people with suspected Ebola infections fled the facility and are unaccounted for, a hospital director said. Angry residents arrived at the clinic in the
Forecasters in Europe yesterday warned of exceptional heat as record temperatures driven by a “heat dome” push temperatures well above seasonal norms across the continent. The surge follows a record-breaking Monday, with France logging its hottest day in the month of May on record, its weather agency said, and the UK also posting unprecedented highs. A so-called “heat dome” of warm air from northern Africa trapped under a high-pressure system over western Europe is behind the high temperatures not usually seen until high summer. Restrictions on outdoor work were imposed in parts of Italy, beaches in southwest France filled earlier than usual and
RSS