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Report: Romania first in EU by child & teen mortality rate in 2017
According to a report by Save the Children Romania and the Ombudsman, Romania's child and teen mortality rate places it at the top of the EU ranking.
"Romania's mortality rate in 2017 was 61.69 per 100,000 children and adolescents, while the EU average was 31.60," shows the Report on the observance of the right of the child in Romania (2019), which was released on Tuesday.
According to the Save the Children Organization, there were 1,214 deaths of infants aged less than one year in 2018 in Romania, with an infant mortality rate (deaths per 1,000 live births) of 6.5 ?. More than half of infant deaths occur in the first month of life (neonatal mortality).
An analysis of the favoring factors conducted by the National Public Health Institute shows that, to a certain extent, these deaths would have been avoidable by better prenatal monitoring, which would have allowed both interventions during pregnancy, and the directing of high complexity pregnancies to properly equipped medical facilities. Yet, a high number of the pregnant women did not benefit from prenatal investigations, Save the Children said.
According to the cited source, the counties with the lowest infant mortality rates in 2018 are Dambovita (2.9 ?), Ilfov (4.1 ?), Arad and Timis (4.5 ?), Iasi and Alba (4.8 ? each) and the municipality of Bucharest (3.6 ?). Conversely, the counties with infant mortality rates three or two times higher than the national average are Tulcea (15.5 ?), Botosani (12.9 ?), Salaj (11.5 ?), Calarasi (11.2 ?) and Caras-Severin (10 ?). The infant mortality rate in rural areas (7.9 ?) is much higher than in urban areas (5.3 ?).
The highest percentage of deaths in infants aged less than 1 year is registered in the case of mothers without education or who have only primary education. The age of the mother is also an important factor, with mortality rates standing high for both adolescent and 40+ aged mothers.
"Although the principle of the child's best interest is well defined in law, the situation of the child in Romania remains critical, with over a third of the children living below the poverty line, with a chronic split between urban and rural areas in terms of basic rights - health, education, life - and a school dropout phenomenon that puts its mark on the development of society. (...) The analysis of the situation of the child and the child's rights in Romania shows that the progress made in the last decade is either modest (infant mortality rate, protection against violence, poverty alleviation, the protection system), or downright null (education, medical protection, the protection of children with disabilities). Furthermore, living conditions and service accessibility have worsened for Roma children and children with disabilities," Save the Children reports.
According to the cited source, about 21.5 percent of Romanian children live in severe material deprivation - the highest rate in the EU, where the average is 5.9 percent - and over 32 percent live below the poverty line. Included here are the persons whose incomes are less than 60 percent of the national average income (ie below 616 lei/person/ month in 2017), including social benefits.
In 2017 a 19.1 percent share of the population had incomes below the poverty line and had been in the same situation for at least two of the previous three years. In the case of children, the persistent poverty rate was 28.8 percent in 2017. Although on a downward trend, according to the latest Eurostat data, Romania remains the European state with the largest poverty gap indicator or social exclusion gap between children and the total population.
Over 150,000 Romanian children are going to bed hungry; the statistical report includes only the children who live in rural areas and the figure was calculated based on a 2018 survey that found that 3 percent of the interviewed go to bed hungry on a daily basis and another 5 percent from time to time.