According to UNICEF, there's been global and regional progress on infant mortality rates; global child deaths have reached a record low, falling to 9.7 million per year. But that progress has not been mirrored in Belize. After making steady gains throughout the nineties, since the year 2000, infant mortality rates have fluctuated. The under-five mortality rate in Belize for the year 2006 is 24.8 - below average among Latin American and Caribbean countries. UNICEF Representative in Belize Rana Flowers discussed the dip and the implications.
Rana Flowers, Country Representative - UNICEF
"We could point to perhaps taking our eye off the ball a little bit. I think we have become maybe a little bit complacent in terms of child health and maternal health. Both those areas affect the under 5 mortality rate and I think what it points to is a need for us to focus, to probably look a little bit at investment issues and access.
We need to go back and look at where the gaps are, look at where the problems are and start working out what we need to do to bridge those gaps. I think we need to give more support and probably more resources to child health areas because these deaths are occurring in the first year of life largely and they are preventable.
I think that if you have an under 5 mortality rate in a country such as Costa Rica, which is at 12, and Belie at 24.8 - and that is more than double. That is telling us that we can do more.
When we look at the situation of children, of young children, of pregnant women, I think anemia is definitely playing a role, micro-nutrient deficiencies are definitely playing a role, chronic malnutrition is featuring more and more and they are elements that we would associate with poverty absolutely."
Jules Vasquez,
As we role out a national health insurance scheme, is this an area that needs urgent attention?
Rana Flowers,
"If you have a under five mortality rate that is not declining and that is one of the higher rates in the Caribbean, I would certainly be encouraged that this requires urgent attention. If you have children dying of preventable diseases, then I don't see arguments for not making this a priority area."
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