国内英语新闻:China is "very encouraging" example for improving health of women, children: UN official

UNITED NATIONS, Oct. 28 (Xinhua) -- China's progress in meeting a development goal on children's health can serve as an inspiration to other countries working towards the same objective, Dr. Renee Van de Weerdt, chief of maternal, newborn and child health at the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) told Xinhua in an interview Friday.

Van de Weerdt said that "the example of China is very encouraging because it means it can be done, even in a very big country with a very big population."

China is on track to meet the fourth Millennium Development Goal (MDG), one of the eight development targets that the international community has pledged to meet by 2015. MDG 4 requires that each country reduce its rate of mortality for children under age five to two-thirds of what it was in 1990.

According to Van de Weerdt, most deaths of children under five take place in the first month of life. After the first month, the most prevalent causes of death are pneumonia and diarrhea.

ACHIEVING THE GOAL WORLDWIDE

The international community has been doing "relatively well" in working towards achieving MDG 4, Van de Weerdt said.

The UN Interagency Group for Child Mortality Estimation (IGME) stated in their 2011 Report on Levels and Trends in Child Mortality that the number of under-five deaths worldwide has dropped from more than 12 million in 1990 to 7.6 million in 2010.

"We really continue to see progress," Van de Weerdt said. "The number of children that die every year continues to drop so we are really pleased to see that progress. Unfortunately, the progress isn't sufficient to really be able to say that if we continue at this pace we would achieve MDG 4 by 2015."

Some regions, according to Van de Weerdt, like Latin America and parts of Asia are making more headway towards the goal than others that are currently lagging behind.