Paris: Less than a quarter of "priority countries" are on track to reach UN goals for reducing high rates of infant and maternal mortality by 2015,according to a major report released today.

While some nations -- notably China -- have made significant progress, far more, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, have either stagnated or lost ground, said the report.

The series of studies, published by the British medical journal The Lancet, is the second so-called "Countdown" assessment on how well the world's nations are doing in meeting eight Millennium Development Goals (MDG) adopted in 2000.

One of the objectives is to slash the death rate among children under five by two thirds before 2015,using the beginning of the century as a benchmark. Another seeks to improve maternal health.

The report, which focuses on the 68 countries accounting for 97 per cent of maternal and child deaths worldwide, makes for grim reading.

Only 16 of these high-risk nations are on track to meet their goals. Twenty-six have made no progress whatsoever, and 12 -- including Cameroon, Botswana, Kenya and South Africa -- have actually slid backwards.

The bottom line is that more than 10 million youngsters die before the age of five every year, most from preventable causes, the study says.

In at least 15 African countries, one out of four or five children never sees his or her fifth birthday, according to UN statistics.

In the world's richest nations, the corresponding figure is one out of 200 or less.
Source : PTI