Ethiopia reduced child mortality rate by more than half over past 20 years

Ethiopia has reduced its child mortality rates by more than half since 1990, from about 20 percent to 8.8 percent, "through campaigns to increase the number of health workers and clinics throughout the country, government and aid officials said on Friday," Reuters reports. "Reducing malnutrition, which is an underlying factor in at least half of all under-five deaths, has had a profound impact on the survival rates of children," Ethiopia State Minister of Health Keseteberhan Admassu "told a gathering of representatives of United Nations agencies," according to the news agency. "Keseteberhan said the nationwide malnutrition rate has been slashed by 32 percent, with prevalence to being underweight dropping to 28.7 percent in 2010 from 42.1 percent in 2000," Reuters writes (Maasho, 11/11).