Report: Almost 11 Million Children in Devloping Countries Die Before Age 5 [View All]

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Report: Almost 11 Million Children in Developing Countries Die Before Age 5

WASHINGTON (AP) - Almost 11 million children in developing countries die each year before the age of 5, most of them from causes that are preventable in wealthier countries, the World Bank said in a report released Sunday.

The causes include acute respiratory infection, diarrhea, measles and malaria, which together account for 48 percent of child deaths in the developing world, according to the report -called World Development Indicators.

"Rapid improvement before 1990 gave hope that mortality rates for infants and children would be cut by two-thirds in the following 25 years," the report said. "But progress slowed almost everywhere in the 1990s."

The report said only 33 countries are on track to reach the 2015 goal of reducing child mortality rates by two-thirds from its 1990 levels. It said only two regions - Latin America and the Caribbean and Europe and Central Asia - may be on track to achieve the target.

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