Index of infant mortality remains high in the U.S.

The United States will not be able to meet the target of reducing child mortality by 2010 if no drastic measures are taken, especially among the african-American community, warned the federal authorities of health in this Thursday. A report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) showed that this reduction will have to be from an average of 36%, to be achieved the goal of 4.5 deaths per thousand births. According to the document, none of the 50 states of the country managed to achieve that goal in 2002, when the infant mortality rate was seven per thousand births, one of the highest among industrialized countries. "They will have to be taken very comprehensive public health to reduce (child mortality) and bring the country to aim for the end of the decade," said TJ Mathews, author of the study. According to the report, one of the main measures to reduce child mortality should be the reduction of socio-economic disparities between ethnic groups. Other experts on problems of health asked the health authorities intended that more resources to prenatal care for mothers. Of the 225,534 child deaths that occurred between 1995 and 2002, 29% were black children, more than double the percentage that group in the table represents the country's population, the CDC said the document.