The Lancet comments: "The fourth Millennium Development goal (MDG) documents the world's commitment to reducing by two-thirds the 10•8 million deaths of children younger than 5 years by 2015. The key to achieving MDG-4 will be a reduction in neonatal deaths, which represent 36% of this burden. The Lancet's 2005 neonatal survival series, found that a two-thirds reduction in mortality is within reach if only a few simple, readily transferable health-care interventions of proven efficacy are applied…Next week's conference, Countdown to 2015, will provide politicians, financiers, and health-care workers with clear opportunities to save one newborn life for every $2100 invested. Perhaps the only thing more devastating than the loss of a newborn child is the fact that that two-thirds of such deaths could have been avoided in a world that had the resources, but lacked the will to use them."
Also in a Comment in this week's issue, Jacques Sylla, Prime Minister of the Republic of Madagascar and Macky Sall, Prime Minister of Senegal, describe their respective country's commitment to child survival.
Contact:
The Lancet press office 207-424-4949/4249, pressoffice@lancet.com
Notes to editors:
Tracking Progress in Child Survival: Countdown to 2015 (London, Dec 13-14) has been organised by: The Partnership for Maternal, Newborn & Child Health; the Bellagio Child Survival Study Group; World Health Organization; UNICEF; The London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine; The Lancet; Save the Children (UK and US); US Agency for International Development (USAIDS); Basic Support for Institutionalizing Child Survival (BASICS); Department for International Development UK (DFID UK); The World Bank, and International Paediatric Association (IPA) and other organizations. For more information please visit: www.childsurvivalcountdown.com
Journal
The Lancet