Iraq Child Mortality Rate Soars

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Moa'amal Mohammed, age seven, sits alone in a classroom in western Baghdad, Iraq, Monday, May 7, 2007. Due to security concerns, many children are not attending their classes. (AP Photo/Khalid Mohammed)

May 7, 10:23 PM EDT

Report: Iraq Child Mortality Rate Soars

By MARIA CHENG
AP Medical Writer

LONDON (AP) -- The chance that an Iraqi child will live beyond age 5 has plummeted faster than anywhere else in the world since 1990, according to a report released Tuesday, which placed the country last in its child survival rankings.

One in eight Iraqi children died of disease or violence before reaching their fifth birthday in 2005, according to the report by Save the Children, which said Iraq ranked last because it had made the least progress toward improving child survival rates.

Iraq's mortality rate has soared by 150 percent since 1990. Even before the latest war, Iraq was plagued by electricity shortages, a lack of clean water and too few hospitals.

The publication, which used data from 1990-2005, also determined that gains in survival rates in some of the world's poorest countries - including Botswana, Zimbabwe and Swaziland - were declining.