Infant Mortality in Africa

What's in the rain down in Africa?

The causes of infant mortality in Africa are abundant, ranging from disease to neonatal causes. Neonatal refers to the first month (28 days) of a newborn's life. According to the US National Library of Medicine, the causes of infant mortality in Africa are "neonatal causes (26%) , child pneumonia (21%), malaria (18%), diarrhea (16%), HIV/AIDS (6%), measles (5%), and accidents (2%)." There are an estimated 10 million child deaths, under 5 years old, around the world yearly- over half of those deaths are children living in sub-Saharan Africa.

Currently, the country of Mali is the front runner in infant mortality with a total of 100 deaths per 1000 live births. In fact, Mali has the second highest infant mortality rate in the world (the first being Afghanistan). A close second is Somalia, with a 96.6 deaths per 1000 live births. In third is Central African Republic with 88.4 deaths per 1000 live births.

Does infant mortality affect the oncoming development in a third world country?

Why is This Important?

Research and

Data

Why is this relevant in The Poisonwood Bible?

Infant mortality is an immense problem in sub-Saharan Africa to this day, yet we are doing little to help these poor and innocent dying infants. Furthermore, Article 3 of "The Universal Declaration of Human Rights" by the United Nations states that "Everyone has the right of life, liberty, and security of person." By not doing our part in the battle to eliminate infant mortality in sub-Saharan Africa, we are not only acting immorally, we are also violating this declaration made to help benefit us all as a society.

Kakakaka (diarrhea)

“Dying from kakakaka, the disease that turns the body to a small black pitcher, pitches it over, and pours out all its liquid insides. The heavy rain….” (Adah, 172)

Malaria

“The first task was to pull out all the mosquito netting….spell our doom.” (Leah, 35)

Who Profits?

Who Pays?

Call to Action

Discussion Time!

No one directly profits from the death of infants in Africa. However, there are situations in which Western corporations and businesses make things worse for children. For example, coffee beans for large Western businesses such as Starbucks are planted in Western Africa because labor is cheaper as well as the abundance of land available. The problem is that these coffee plantations take away from the land that could be used for food for the Africans. Many babies die of mal- and undernourishment due to the indirect effect of Western corporations.

Dying infants and their families pay.

Thank You For Your Time

There are many ways we can help prevent the deaths of these sub-Saharan infants. Developed countries need to start doing their part in helping to implement filtration systems as well help improve infrastructure in order to ensure that everybody has access to medical facilities. Individually, we can donate to reliable charities, such as Save the Children's Newborn Health, that directly impact the state of infants in Africa.

Work Cited

“Universal Declaration of Human Rights.” United Nations, United Nations, www.un.org/en/universal-declaration-human-rights/.

Ester, Pablo Viguera, et al. “Factors Associated to Infant Mortality in Sub-Saharan Africa.” The National Center for Biotechnology Information, 5 Sept. 2011, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5345500/.

Barasa, Faith. “Highest Infant Mortality Rates in Africa.” World Atlas, Worldatlas, 23 May 2018, www.worldatlas.com/articles/african-countries-with-the-highest-infant-mortality-rates.html.