Azernews.Az

36 out of every 1,000 children in Azerbaijan die under the age of five, the United Nations children's foundation estimates.
UNICEF said in a report on Wednesday that, among the former Soviet republics, higher child mortality rates were reported only in two countries – Turkmenistan (38 per 1,000) and Tajikistan (64 per 1,000).
Among the post-Soviet states, the situation is the most encouraging in the Baltic states, with mortality rates in Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia reported at 6, 7 and 9 respectively.
The figures are 13 in Russia and Belarus, 16 in Ukraine, 17 in Moldova, 23 in Armenia, 28 in Kyrgyzstan, 28 in Uzbekistan, 30 in Kazakhstan and Georgia.
The average child mortality rate in the former Soviet states and central Europe is 23 per 1,000, while the worldwide figure is 65, UNICEF said.
Over 634 million children worlwide die before the age of five. The most alarming figure was reported in Africa – 132 per 1,000, though the percentage of children with retarded growth there fell to 34 percent from 38 percent in 2008 compared to 1990.
The percentage of children with retarded growth in Asia fell to 30 percent from 44 percent over the same period.
More than 90 percent of the developing world's children facing stunted growth live in Africa and Asia, the report said. A third of them -- roughly 60.8 million -- are in India.
UNICEF said that countries with the highest prevalence of stunted growth among children under the age of five include Afghanistan (59 percent), Yemen (58 percent), Guatemala and East Timor (both 54 percent), Democratic Republic of the Congo (46 percent) and North Korea (45 percent).
Low mortality rates were reported in the world’s industrialized nations, including Norway, Switzerland, the United States, Canada, Japan, Australia and New Zealand.
UNICEF also said poor nutrition in the early years of life causes stunted growth and health problems for nearly 200 million children in developing countries.
"Undernutrition steals a child's strength and makes illnesses that the body might otherwise fight off far more dangerous," UNICEF Executive Director Ann Veneman was quoted by Reuters as saying.
"More than one third of children who die from pneumonia, diarrhea and other illnesses could have survived had they not been undernourished," she said.*