New global research on child mortality rates in Ethiopia shows while there has been a significant decline in these rates in past three decades, too many children under the age of five are still dying. The analysis found the mortality rate in the under-five demographic decreased by almost 4.5 per cent every year between 1990 and 2019.
However, despite the progress, it’s still one of the highest rates in the world with an estimated 190,000 under 5 deaths in 2019 at the rate of 52 deaths per 1000 livebirths. The country’s neonatal mortality rate is 26.6 deaths per 1000 livebirths.
Lead author Dr Gizachew Tessema from the Curtin School of Population Health said in 2019, almost three quarters (74 per cent) of these deaths occurred before a child’s first birthday and over half (52 per cent) in the first 28 days.
“While a baby born in Ethiopia today is three times less likely to die before age five than one born in 1990, this reduction is not enough,” Dr Tessema said. “We are still losing unacceptably too many young lives from