Global fall in neonatal deaths over past 20 years is too slow, says study

Despite a 29% global fall in the number of babies dying in their first month of life over the past 20 years, progress on improving neonatal mortality rates has been too slow, particularly in Africa, says a study published in PLoS Medicine.

An estimated 3.3 million babies died in the first month of life in 2009 compared with 4.6 million in 1990 , a fall of 29%. But nearly 99% of these deaths occurred in developing countries, and more than half (1.7 million, 52%) occurred in five …