ABSTRACT
Every day almost 40,000 children die. Such deaths are overwhelmingly concentrated in the developing world. In 1990 mortality rates for the under-5s were 284 and 180 per 1,000 live births for Mali and Bangladesh respectively, a stark contrast to the 9 per 1,000 of the United Kingdom. Every day over 1,000 women die from problems related to child-bearing. The disparity between developed and developing countries is even more striking. India and Bangladesh have more than 100 maternal deaths per 100,000 women per year, compared to just 3 in the United States. Many millions more women and children suffer untold temporary and permanent disability and ill-health. The vast majority of this death and suffering is preventable.
