Prevention of Infant Mortality in Brazil

The United Nations Program for Development is present in Brazil since the early 60's, one of the central themes of its work is the combat of poverty and social exclusion. The projections for the Millennium Development Goals related to health of the country are the worst in the group of targets set up for this group until 2015. In this group is included the 4th Goal that is to reduce infant mortality.

Brazil has reduced infant mortality from 47.1 deaths per thousand births in 1990 to 19 in 2008. By 2015, the goal is to reduce that number to 17.9 deaths per thousand. However, inequality is still great: Poor children are more than twice as likely to die than the rich, and those born to black mothers and indigenous peoples have a higher mortality rate. By region, the Northeast had the largest drop in deaths from zero to five years, but infant mortality is still nearly double the rate recorded in the Southeast, South and Midwest.

According to Malta et al. the performance of health services has contributed significantly to the reduction of infant mortality in the country. Among the group of preventable causes the group of causes avoidable through vaccination decreased 75% during 1997 to 2006. The group of evitable causes for actions to promote health care showed the second largest decline (56.5%), followed by the group of evitable causes for actions of appropriate diagnosis and treatment (47.7%) and group of causes associated with adequate attention to the newborn (42.5%). These results show the positive impact of preventive measures in reducing infant mortality in the country. The challenge is to extend such assistance to the needy population and the economically disadvantaged regions.