[Marxism] Infant death rate on rise in US South, especially among Blacks

["Fred Feldman" <ffeldman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

New York Times
April 22, 2007
In Turnabout, Infant Deaths Climb in South 
By ERIK ECKHOLM
HOLLANDALE, Miss. - For decades, Mississippi and neighboring states with
large black populations and expanses of enduring poverty made steady
progress in reducing infant death. But, in what health experts call an
ominous portent, progress has stalled and in recent years the death rate has
risen in Mississippi and several other states. 

The setbacks have raised questions about the impact of cuts in welfare and
Medicaid and of poor access to doctors, and, many doctors say, the growing
epidemics of obesity, diabetes and hypertension among potential mothers,
some of whom tip the scales here at 300 to 400 pounds.

"I don't think the rise is a fluke, and it's a disturbing trend, not only in
Mississippi but throughout the Southeast," said Dr. Christina Glick, a
neonatologist in Jackson, Miss., and past president of the National
Perinatal Association. 

To the shock of Mississippi officials, who in 2004 had seen the infant
mortality rate - defined as deaths by the age of 1 year per thousand live
births - fall to 9.7, the rate jumped sharply in 2005, to 11.4. The national
average in 2003, the last year for which data have been compiled, was 6.9.
Smaller rises also occurred in 2005 in Alabama, North Carolina and
Tennessee. Louisiana and South Carolina saw rises in 2004 and have not yet
reported on 2005. 

Whether the rises continue or not, federal officials say, rates have
stagnated in the Deep South at levels well above the national average. 

Most striking, here and throughout the country, is the large racial
disparity. In Mississippi, infant deaths among blacks rose to 17 per
thousand births in 2005 from 14.2 per thousand in 2004, while those among
whites rose to 6.6 per thousand from 6.1. (The national average in 2003 was
5.7 for whites and 14.0 for blacks.) 

The overall jump in Mississippi meant that 65 more babies died in 2005 than
in the previous year, for a total of 481. 
[snip]



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