An article dated October 14, 2001 in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, states at
thhe beginning, "One of the paradoxes of health care in Pittsburgh has been the
persistently high death rate of African American infants in a community that
boosts a highly sophisticated medical establishment." Pittsburgh had an
infant death rate for African American infants of 17.23 (from data in1997-99)
Better than the rate of 23.8 per 1000 births in 1991-93. I am not sure what the
data would be now. That particular data also showed rates around the country
in 1997-1999-- with St. Louis posting a 19.02 death rate of African Americans
infants per 1000 live births.
http://www.post-gazette.com/benchmarks/20011014black1014bnp3.asp
I found data regarding infant mortality rates for around the world for the
year 1990 and 2001. Looking at this data gives you the impression that an
African American baby in the USA during those time periods might have had a better
chance at survival in countries such as Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, United Arab
Emirates, Brunei, Hong Kong, Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, Barbados, Chile, Costa
Rica, Cuba, Dominica, Jamaica, Saint Lucia, Sri Lanka, Cyprus, , Mauritius,
Seychelles, Bosnia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuaniz, Poland, Russian
Federation, Slovakia, Slovenia, Ukraine, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada,
Denmark, Finalnd, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg,
Portugal, Spain, Sweden, UK, Switzerland......
http://www.undp.org/hdr2003/indicator/indic_289.html
Maybe a unfair comparison for me to make...since the data for USA was not
overall data but for just one particular population. But a sad statement and I
think a picture of a health care system that functions poorly for one segment
of our population.
Valerie W. McClain, breastfeeding advocate
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