89,000 more Afghan children alive this year because of improved health care

89,000 more Afghan children alive this year because of improved health care

Six years after the Taliban's ouster, medical care in Afghanistan has improved such that 89,000 children who would have died before age 5 in 2001 will survive this year, President Hamid Karzai said Sunday. Saddled for years with one of the world's worst records on child health, Afghanistan has seen access to health care rise dramatically since the U.S.-led invasion. Thousands of clinics have been built across the country, and the Afghan government and aid agencies have trained tens of thousands of doctors, vaccinators and health volunteers who now reach into some of the country's most remote areas.

The under-five child mortality rate in Afghanistan has declined from an estimated 257 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2001 to about 191 per 1,000 in 2006, a 25 per cent drop, the Ministry of Public Health said, relying on a new study from Johns Hopkins University.

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