Reuters
KAMPALA
Washington has the highest infant mortality rate of all the world's richest capitals, according to a survey highlighting the failure of the world's wealthiest country to prevent high rates of child deaths among its poorest citizens.
Save the Children said in a study on Tuesday that 6.6 babies die per 1,000 live births in Washington, making the US capital the most dangerous city in the developed world to be born.
In contrast, only 1.6 babies die per 1,000 live births in the Czech capital Prague, which topped the charity's index measuring child survival in the world's wealthiest capitals. Prague was followed by Stockholm, Oslo, Tokyo and Lisbon. The headline figure for Washington masked huge disparities between rich and poor.
Babies born in Ward Eight, just 6 km (4 miles) from the White House, were 10 times more likely to die before their first birthday than babies born in the city's most affluent Ward Three, the study showed. ‘It's survival of the richest,’ said Carolyn Miles, chief executive of Save the Children USA, in a statement.
Unemployment, poverty and murder rates in Ward Eight, where 93 percent of the population of 71,000 are black, are among the nation's highest. ‘The underlying health of mothers in these poor communities is not good,’ Miles told the Thomson Reuters Foundation in an interview.
‘High rates of diabetes and high rates of obesity contribute to these women having more pre-term babies.’ Typically, at risk babies are born to single mothers who live in subsidised housing, Ward said. They often do not know about the risks of childbirth and do not get sufficient pre-natal care. ‘Community outreach and community engagement with pregnant moms is really something that has worked in other places - and we need more of that in Washington DC,’ she said.