'Adequate progress not being made on mother and child mortality'

'Adequate progress not being made on mother and child mortality'
Few developing countries are making adequate progress providing health care to save the lives of women, infants and children, according to Unicef.

The new Tracking Progress in Maternal, Newborn and Child Survival report has found that over ten million women and children die each year from preventable causes in the 68 developing countries which account for 97 per cent of paternal and child deaths worldwide.

Findings show that treatment for potentially fatal illnesses still fail to reach the majority of women and children in Africa and south Asia.

South Africa was ranked 61st in the report at reducing child mortality, only a month after a separate study in medical journal the Lancet said that the country was not likely to meet the Millennium Development Goals on the subject by 2015.

At least 260 women and children die every day in South Africa and no measures were being made to reduce the mortality rate, according to the World Health Organisation.

There are eight Millennium Development Goals established by the United Nations which all countries in the world have agreed to meet in order to fulfil the needs of the poorest people in their society.

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