S. Korea's infant mortality rate world's 16th lowest

SEOUL, Aug. 31 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's neonatal infant mortality rate almost halved over the past two decades to rank as the world's 16th lowest, a report showed Wednesday.
About 2.2 of every 1,000 South Korean newborns died within four weeks of birth in 2009, compared with four deaths per 1,000 newborns registered in 1990, the World Health Organization (WHO) and Save the Children, a global non-governmental organization for child rights, said in a joint report.
The decline drove down South Korea's neonatal mortality rate to the 16th lowest among the WHO member countries, sharply down from 88th, the rank it posted in 1990, according to the report based on surveys of infant deaths in the WHO's 193 member countries.
France, Estonia and Malta registered the same infant mortality rate as that of South Korea.
Meanwhile, the rate reached 18.1 in impoverished North Korea in 2009, the 125th lowest level among the 193 WHO members. The latest figure marks a drop from 23 infant deaths registered in 1990.
Mortality rates of Afghanistan and Somalia hit the worst level at 53 deaths for every 1,000 newborns, followed by Congo with 51 and Mali with 50, the report showed, indicating high rates of infant deaths in African countries.
San Marino, a state situated on the Italian peninsula, posted the lowest infant mortality rate of 0.6, trailed by Luxembourg with 0.8 and Japan with 1.1, according to the report published in medical journal PLoS Medicine.
"Most causes of newborns' death like premature birth, suffocation or infection could be prevented during pregnancy or childbirth," an official at Save the Children said. "Countries need to increase the number of midwives and community health workers in order to revive dying babies."
pbr@yna.co.kr