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AMONG 55
less-developed countries, the Philippines was ranked
below Mongolia but above Qatar as the best place for
mothers, a report by Save the Children Inc. revealed.
The
report released last week by the United States branch of
the nonprofit group revealed that among Southeast Asian
nations, the Philippines (ranked 38th) trailed Malaysia
(35), Vietnam (24), Thailand (13) and Korea (8) as the
“countries that are doing the best” at reaching the
children of mothers with basic health measures.
“Every
year, our State of the World’s Mothers report reminds us
of the inextricable link between the well-being of
mothers and their children,” Save the Children president
and chief executive Charles MacCormack was quoted in the
report as saying.
“More
than 75 years of experience on the ground have shown us
that when mothers have health care, education and
economic opportunity, both they and their children have
the best chance to survive and thrive.”
The
report, titled “State of the World’s Mothers 2008:
Closing the Survival Gap for Children Under 5,”
identified the Philippines as the top country in the
world with the highest inequity in the survival rate of
some 368.17 million children under 5 among 55 countries.
The
Report Card cited that in every country it analyzed,
“more than 30 percent of children lack…essential
health-care services.”
In more
than half of these countries, said the report, “50
percent or more of children do not get health care. In
Ethiopia and Chad—the two lowest-ranked countries on the
Report Card—more than 80 percent of children do not
receive basic lifesaving health care.”
The
report said the
Philippines,
with 31 percent of children under 5 missing out on basic
health care, is the highest-ranked country in this
analysis.
Ethiopia,
with 84 percent of children not getting basic health
care, ranks the lowest.
“Nearly
half of the poorest children under 5 in the Philippines
[46 percent] do not get health care when they need it,
and a poor child is 3.2 times more likely than a rich
child to die before reaching age 5,” the report said.
The
report noted the inequities among poor and well-off
children as “alarming” in terms of access to health
services.
“This is
true for countries where the national averages are
relatively good, such as the
Philippines
[where 46 percent of the poorest children do not get
health care, compared with 14 percent of the best-off
children],
Indonesia
[48 percent of poorest versus 23 percent of best-off]
and Bolivia [58 versus 24 percent].”
This,
the report noted, is “a commonplace but largely untold
tale of grief” for mothers.
The
report also linked the level of education of mothers
with child mortality, noting that when mothers are
educated, more children may likely survive.
The gap
between best-educated and least-educated mothers in the
Philippines, however, is yawning according to the
report. Still, the country’s education-related survival
gap pales in comparison with
Nepal’s,
Nigeria’s and Tajikistan’s rate.
The
Philippines’ survival rate, the report noted, is of a
magnitude comparable to the infant mortality rates among
black infants in the
US
states of Wisconsin, Delaware and Michigan. The US,
notably, ranked 26th in the World Mother’s Index; with
the best place for mothers as Sweden.
In the
three US states mentioned, the report said “a black baby
is over three times more likely to die compared with a
white baby.”
Survival
gaps of this magnitude, it added, “are comparable with
those in Bolivia, Nigeria and the Philippines —some of
the most inequitable countries in the world.”
The
report suggested that the Philippines “could save many
more children’s lives by targeting health care to the
poor.”
If all
children survived at the same rates as the wealthiest
children, 35 percent of the
Philippines’s
under-5 deaths could be averted. That means 26,000
Philippine children would be saved each year, the report
said.
If it’s
any consolation, the
Philippines
ranked higher than Indonesia (55) and India (66) in the
World’s Mother’s Index.
So next
time the country celebrates Mother’s Day, Save the
Children’s Survive to 5 campaign chairman William H.
Frist suggests that flowers and a sentimental card be
dropped.
“The
presents that would bring tears of joy to most of the
world’s mothers are not chocolates or flowers. Instead,
those mothers want health care that could save their
children’s lives—remarkably simple, inexpensive tools
such as vaccines, vitamin A, antibiotics and a trained
community health worker.” |
