Claire,
You asked, "Is there a break-down into cause of death?" No. These
statistics are from the United Nations Development Program. But, I have gotten stats
from Florida Vital Statistics and the break down for cause of death is a two
page breakdown of diseases, congenital anomalies, SIDS, unintentional injury,
homicide, etc. What interested me was the breakdown in diseases--intestinal
infections. septicemia, parasitic diseases, pnemonia, metabolic and immune
disorders, respiratory diseases, enteritis/colitis....
SIDS deaths were high in Florida. The question in my mind is how many of
those deaths might we have prevented, if those infants had been exclusively
breastfed? Human milk prevents or has factors that inactivate these diseases and
syndromes (in fact companies are using those components to treat those
particular diseases). Even in the cases of congenital anomalies, would the mortality
rate have been as high if those infants had been exclusively breastfed?
Cancer which is an immune disorder, might very well be prevented in some cases by
exclusive breastfeeding. By the way, the Florida Vital Statistics I am looking
at is from 1997 and of interest is the fact that in that year only one infant
died of HIV. This is for the State of Florida, considered one of the top
states for MTCT of HIV. Ironic, that in that same year in Florida 139 infants
died from SIDS, 14 infants from septicemia, 23 infants from pnemonia, 17 from
intestinal infections, 10 from metabolic and immune disorders, 18 from other
infectious & parasitic diseases. Our health care dollars are being spent in
massive amounts towards HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment. But looking at the
statistics in Florida one might believe that health care dollars would be better
spent in other areas of health care. Of course, I believe our health care
dollars would be better spent in educating mothers about immune building
lifestyles for herself and for her baby, which of course would emphasis exclusive
breastfeeding.
Your second question, "How many are untreated or mistreated medical
conditions and how many are from other causes?" I have never seen any statistics
regarding untreated or mistreated medical conditions in conjuction with infant
mortality.
Valerie W. McClain, breastfeeding advocate
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