Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) refers to the number of child deaths per 1000 live births before reaching age one. Whereas, neonatal mortality is death within 28 days of birth. All neonatal deaths are also counted as infant mortality deaths.
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In 2017, across the world, 4.1 million deaths or 75 per cent were of all under five years of age deaths were within a year of birth. IMR has always been on the rise in Mumbai due to many reasons with the primary one being prematurity, sepsis and asphyxia.
Sepsis is a serious condition resulting from the presence of harmful microorganisms in the blood or other tissues and the body’s response to their presence, potentially leading to the malfunctioning of various organs, shock, and death. Whereas, asphyxia is a condition arising when the body is deprived of oxygen, causing unconsciousness or death.
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However, it came as a sigh of relief for health activists and people in the health sector when IMR rate reduced to 25 in Mumbai when the national average is 34 per 1000 live births.
After many years of a steady fall, the IMR in the city had remained constant at 26 from 2015 to 2017, raising serious questions about the efficacy of child and maternal health initiatives. Numbers based on the registration of births and deaths show that in 2018, around 3,723 infants died of the 1.51 lakh births. It was a decline from the 4,079 deaths in 2017 and 3,998 deaths in 2016.
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