联合国：在婴儿和孕妇中，每11秒就有一人死亡

UN: Among Babies and Pregnant Mothers, a Death Every 11 Seconds

More women and newborns survive now than ever before, says a new United Nations report. But it also found that a baby or a pregnant woman still dies every 11 seconds somewhere in the world.

The UN agencies UNICEF and the World Health Organization (WHO) wrote the report. It says that child deaths have decreased by almost half since the year 2000. Deaths of pregnant women have dropped by more than a third.

These reductions are mostly the result of wider availability of lower-cost, good quality health services.

But the latest data also showed that 5.3 million children worldwide died in 2018 by the age of five. Almost half of those deaths happened before a baby turned one month.

The data also showed more than 290,000 women died because of problems during pregnancy² and childbirth in 2017.

Henrietta Fore¹ is UNICEF’s lead director. She said in a report, “A skilled pair of hands to help mothers and newborns around the time of birth, along with clean water, adequate nutrition, basic medicines and vaccines³, can make the difference between life and death.”

Fore urged governments and health leaders to invest in health services to, in her words, “do all it takes ... to save these precious lives.”

The data showed huge inequalities around the world. Women and young children in sub-Saharan Africa, for example, have a much higher risk of death than in other large areas.

Levels of maternal⁴ deaths are nearly 50 times higher for women in sub-Saharan Africa than in wealthy countries. Babies born there are also 10 times more likely to die in their first month of life, the report found.

The report did note improvements. Since 1990, there has been a 56-percent drop in deaths of children under 15, from 14.2 million a year to 6.2 million in 2018.

Countries in eastern and southeastern Asia have made the most progress. Those areas have seen an 80 percent drop in the number of deaths among children under five.

I’m Caty Weaver⁵.

Words in This Story

pair - n. two things that are the same and are meant to be used together

adequate - adj. good enough : of a quality that is good or acceptable

precious - adj. greatly loved, valued, or important

1 fore   

adv.在前面；adj.先前的；在前部的；n.前部

参考例句：

• Your seat is in the fore part of the aircraft.你的座位在飞机的前部。
• I have the gift of fore knowledge.我能够未卜先知。

2 pregnancy   

n.怀孕，怀孕期

参考例句：

• Early pregnancy is often accompanied by nausea.怀孕早期常有恶心的现象。
• Smoking during pregnancy increases the risk of miscarriage.怀孕期吸烟会增加流产的危险。

3 vaccines   

疫苗，痘苗( vaccine的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• His team are at the forefront of scientific research into vaccines. 他的小组处于疫苗科研的最前沿。
• The vaccines were kept cool in refrigerators. 疫苗放在冰箱中冷藏。

4 maternal   

adj.母亲的，母亲般的，母系的，母方的

参考例句：

• He is my maternal uncle.他是我舅舅。
• The sight of the hopeless little boy aroused her maternal instincts.那个绝望的小男孩的模样唤起了她的母性。

5 weaver   

n.织布工；编织者

参考例句：

• She was a fast weaver and the cloth was very good.她织布织得很快，而且布的质量很好。
• The eager weaver did not notice my confusion.热心的纺织工人没有注意到我的狼狈相。