Eastern Visaya’s infant mortality rate highest in country

FORTY out of 1,000 infants die after birth while 53 children below five years old die out of 1,000 live births in Eastern Visayas, the National Statistics Office (NSO) said in a report released this week.

The region recorded the highest infant mortality rate (IMR) and under five mortality rate (U-5MR) in the 2011 Family Health Survey of NSO among 17 regions in the country.

NSO website revealed that from 29 IMR in the 2006 Family Planning Survey (FPS), it went up to 40 mortalities per 1,000 births in 2011 despite significant drop of child mortality nationwide last year. The survey has no regional data on U-5MR available online.

The national average is an IMR of 22 per 1,000 births and a U-5MR of 30 per 1,000 births. The National Capital Region (NCR) had the country’s lowest IMR (14 per 1,000) and U-5MR (20 per 1,000).

“Similarly, estimate of infant mortality rate (IMR) or the probability of a child born on a specified year and dying before reaching the age of one year declined to 22 deaths per 1,000 live births based on the 2011 FHS from 24 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2006 FPS. From 38 deaths per 1,000 live births in 1993, the IMR also dropped to 29 deaths in 2003,” the NSO explained.

Despite high mortality rates in some areas, the 2011 study showed that the region’s situation had worsened, raising doubts of the region’s ability to attain Millennium Development Goal targets to bring down infant deaths to 20 and U-5MR to 32 in 2015.

In a recent interview, Department of Health Regional Director Jaime Bernadas said: “We are currently organizing health teams and it will be completed in 2013. All of this will be in place and hopefully this can reduce child mortalities in the region.”

The 2011 study is a survey of 53,162 sample households nationwide. A total of 52,769 women of reproductive age were interviewed on fertility, family planning practice, maternal and child health, and maternal and child mortality.

The survey was conducted by the NSO and funded mainly by the United States Agency for International Development. (Leyte Samar Daily Express)