The Ministry of Health of Córdoba reported that the infant mortality rate in the province decreased by 0.5 points in 2021, thus continuing a downward trend: in 2019 it was 7.4; in 2020 it was 7 and 6.5 in 2021.
The infant mortality rate -IMR- reflects the deaths of children under 1 year of age, every 1,000 live births.
It is an indicator that shows the level of social development, and in particular, the availability, use and access to health systems, nutritional care, health and protection.
During 2021, 288 deaths were recorded, 20 fewer than in 2020 (308).
In this regard, the Minister of Health Diego Cardozo expressed: “The most important thing is to confirm that the strategies we are implementing are the right ones and we will continue working in that sense, generating greater access to health in our community.”
It should be noted that the decline in the birth rate continues, from 44,167 in 2020, to 43,972 in 2021, which is related, from a health point of view, to the strengthening of the Provincial Sexual and Reproductive Health Program, among other factors.
The IMR decreased in its neonatal component (deaths occurring before 27 days), from 5.2 in 2020 to 4.3 in 2021; but not so in the post-neonatal component (deaths that occur between 28 and 364 days), since the rate in this group was 1.9 in 2020 and 2.2 in 2021.
Marcela Yanover, director of Maternity and Childhood, warned that “Although the decrease was at the expense of the neonatal component, it must be taken into account that 66 percent of boys and girls die within the first 28 days of life, so care strategies must continue to be reinforced in the care during pregnancy, childbirth and newborns.
Regarding the 10 leading causes of death in children under one year of age, 81 percent were related to perinatal causes, that is, linked to pregnancy, childbirth and newborn care: prematurity, intrauterine growth retardation, newborns affected by maternal complications of pregnancy, respiratory distress syndrome, infections, intrauterine hypoxia and perinatal asphyxia, among others. Meanwhile, congenital malformations accounted for 19 percent, with heart defects being the most frequent.