UNICEF: Child deaths declined in 2007

The rate of child deaths younger than 5 continued to decline in 2007, according to UNICEF.

Statistics show a 27% decline in this pediatric age group in 2007, meaning 9.2 million children died in 2007, compared to 12.7 million in 1990.

However, preventable causes such as malnutrition, which is a contributing cause to more than one-third of 2007 deaths among children younger than 5, are behind these statistics, UNICEF stated.

Countries such as Lao PDR, Bangladesh, Bolivia, and Nepal have reduced their mortality rates for children younger than 5 by more than 50% since 1990. If this rate continues, these countries should, by 2015, have reduced their under-5 child mortality rates by two thirds since 1990, according to UNICEF.