Invited on Franceinfo on Wednesday, the director of communications and advocacy for Unicef France welcomed the decline in infant mortality.
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The decline in infant mortality worldwide, noted in a UN report published on Wednesday March 13, is “A very good news”, greets Lucile Grosjean, director of communications and advocacy at Unicef France, on franceinfo. According to this report, the number of children dying before their fifth birthday has fallen to a historic low, falling below five million for the first time in 2022.
For Unicef, this “demonstrates that when we invest in health, in support for health professionals and community workers, it works.” The director of communications and advocacy at Unicef France explains that this progress is in fact due “in support of governments”has “the training of health professionals and community workers who go to the smallest villages so that children and mothers have access to health care”.
“The importance of maintaining health systems in place in these areas”
Lucile Grosjean nevertheless recalls that 4.9 million children under the age of 5 died two years ago, or one death every six seconds. “Between 2000 and 2022, 221 million children died, that’s three times the French population,” she denounces. The director of communications and advocacy at Unicef France also highlights the strong inequalities that persist between countries. “Children who are born in a fragile environment or in a conflict zone are three times more likely to die before the age of 5”, she laments. She therefore insists on “the importance of maintaining health systems in place in these areas”.
Faced with this observation, she calls for “maintain and strengthen efforts so that there are no more of these avoidable deaths, or at least as few as possible.” These deaths are considered avoidable because the main causes of this infant mortality remain complications linked to birth, respiratory diseases, malaria and diarrhea. The director of communications and advocacy at Unicef France therefore judges “fundamental to have midwives” and to realize “deliveries in a medical environment” to help women give birth safely.
