Infant-health setback

CHICAGO — America may be the world's superpower, but its survival rate for newborn babies ranks near the bottom among modern nations, better only than Latvia.

Among 33 industrialized nations, the United States is tied with Hungary, Malta, Poland and Slovakia with a death rate of nearly 5 per 1,000 babies, according to a new report. Latvia's rate is 6 per 1,000.

Utah's infant mortality rate, too, hovers right around 5 per 1,000, a number that's been fairly stable for more than a decade, according to Lois Bloebaum, manager for the Utah Department of Health's Reproductive Health Program.

Bloebaum noted that while America is a wealthy nation, "there are still pockets who are not getting the care they need, and that truth stands in Utah, as well," she said, where improvements could certainly be made.

"We are really good at high-tech care. We can save the bitty preemies, but we are not as good as a lot of industrialized nations on preventive care," Bloebaum said. "We need more of that focus and we need to make sure more women receive care earlier and there are not discrepancies in racial groups."

She said Utah may look better than some states in part because it's not very ethnically diverse, but the "numbers in Utah are changing," and care must be taken to prevent racial and ethnic health care discrepancies. We need to keep a finger on the pulse."

U.S.-based Save the Children compiled the rankings based on health data from countries and agencies worldwide.

Utah Health Department figures for 2004 show that of 50,653 births, 262 infants died before age 1. Among the most common causes of death in Utah were those related to prematurity, congenital defects and chromosomal abnormalities and sudden infant death.

The U.S. ranking is driven partly by racial and income health care disparities. Among U.S. blacks, there are 9 deaths per 1,000 live births, closer to rates in developing nations than to those in the industrialized world.

"Every time I see these kinds of statistics, I'm always amazed to see where the United States is because we are a country that prides itself on having such advanced medical care and developing new technology . . . and new approaches to treating illness. But at the same time not everybody has access to those new technologies," said Dr. Mark Schuster, a Rand Co. researcher and pediatrician with the University of California, Los Angeles.