MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Brazil expects to reach UN Millennium Development Goals by 2012

Health Minister Jose Gomes Temporao

The Brazilian government announced Tuesday that the country has seen a solid drop in childhood malnutrition which, together with the social progress achieved in other areas, meets the criteria under the U.N. Millennium Development Goals for the eradication of extreme poverty.

The proportion of underweight Brazilian children under 5 fell by 7.1% to 1.8% between 1989 and 2006, thus achieving one of the first goals in the eradication of poverty and hunger set by the United Nations to be reached by the year 2015, the Health Ministry said.

Brazil has also substantially reduced the number of people living on an income equivalent to $1 a day, has shrunk the gap between rich and poor, and has increased the employment rate, all areas contemplated in the Millennium Goals.

Health Minister Jose Gomes Temporao said that Brazil should reach the goal of reducing the childhood-mortality rate by 2012, three years before the U.N. target date, if the country “stays its present course.”

According to the report, infant mortality fell by 58% in Brazil between 1990 and 2008, to the point of having 22.8 deaths for every 1,000 live births, and within three years should fall to 17.8 deaths, which would mean achieving the goal set by the United Nations.

The report also said that between 1990 and 2008 there was a 75% drop in the death rate of infants in their first year of life, or six deaths for every 1,000 births.

Temporao added that in the last 18 years, deaths of women from complications during pregnancy and childbirth have fallen by 56%.

“One negative aspect is the increase in the proportion of births by Caesarean section, which have reached 47%” the minister said, adding that campaigns are needed to promote the advantages of natural childbirth.