Cuba's infant mortality rate lower than in US

Emile Schepers

Under the best of circumstances, it is hard for a poor, Third 
World country to equal, let alone surpass, the social statistics 
of wealthy developed countries. For years, Cuba has been passing 
all other relatively poor countries in its statistics on health, 
health care and education. It has now officially passed the 
United States of America, the richest country in the world, on 
one key measure of national well-being, namely, the infant 
mortality rate.

What is the infant mortality rate? It is a public health 
statistic, representing the number of babies per every 1000 born 
in a given year who die before reaching their first birthday.

In mid-February, the US Centers for Disease Control and 
Prevention in Atlanta revealed that the US infant mortality rate 
now stands at 7 as of 2002, backsliding from 6.8 in 2001.

In early January, the Cuban Ministry of Health announced an 
infant mortality rate of 6.3, more than a half-point lower than 
the US.

Worldwide, the lowest infant mortality rates are generally found 
in countries which are both wealthy and have well-developed 
social safety networks, such as Sweden (which has an infant 
mortality rate of 3 — that is, out of every 1,000 babies born, 3 
die before reaching their first birthday).

The countries with the worst infant mortality rates are those 
that are desperately poor and have a social safety net that is 
minimal or nonexistent, such as Afghanistan (infant mortality 
rate of 165) and many countries in sub-Saharan Africa.

The worldwide tendency is for infant mortality rates to go down, 
due to urbanisation, improvements in sanitation, health advances, 
and other factors. What is remarkable about the Cuban achievement 
is that it has gone down so far so fast. Cuba's rate is far 
better than those of the vast majority of countries of Asia, 
Africa and Latin America, wealthy economies such as those of 
Japan and Singapore excepted.

People who know Cuba won't find the Cuban achievement surprising. 
They attribute it to the high level of education of the Cuban 
population, the supportive social networks that are encouraged by 
the Cuban socialist government, the investment of Cuba in public 
health and health care, and the low AIDS and drug addiction rates 
in Cuba. These things are made possible by Cuban socialism.

Only in a few places in the world do you find a trend toward 
worsening of the infant mortality rate. After the collapse of the 
Soviet Union, for example, infant mortality rates in the former 
Soviet republics in Central Asia skyrocketed, but are going down 
again in some places.

The AIDS crisis is causing an increase in Southern Africa. And 
now we see an increase in the rate in the United States.

The Center for Diseases Control attributes the worsening of the 
infant mortality rate in the US to the tendency of more women to 
have babies when they are already in their 30s and 40s, said to 
be a greater risk for the neonates. Even if this is accepted 
(which it should not be) as an excuse for such a negative 
development, it raises more questions than it answers, such as:

* How come the same thing is not happening in other developed, 
wealthy countries, where the demographic trends on childbirth are 
similar? And how does this breakdown among different racial, 
ethnic and economic subsections of the U.S. population? Could it 
be the atrocious state of health care among low income and 
minority workers is the major factor that is causing the increase 
in infant mortality in the US?

* Are there economic factors behind the decision to have babies 
later in life, such as the inability of many families to survive 
economically without both parents out working full time, unable 
to support or care for children? Are the policies of the "pro-
family values" Bush administration making the US the wealthiest 
child-unfriendly country in history?

But, some would argue, the infant mortality rate in the US is 
still relatively low, right?

Sure, when you consider the only countries besides Cuba that are 
doing better than we [in the US] are: Australia, Austria, Brunei, 
Canada, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, 
Germany, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, 
Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, 
San Marino, Singapore, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and 
the UK. (UNICEF and World Health Organization 2003 statistics.)

Not bad for us, the richest country in the world. We're number 
30! We're number 30! Hurrah! 

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People's Weekly World