Free Republic

LONDON -- Four million newborn babies die every year in the world but three-quarters of them could be easily saved, researchers said on Thursday. Most of the deaths occur in 10 countries in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa and are caused by infections, prematurity and breathing problems related to birth complications. "If you look across 23 nations of western Europe there are 4 million births every year," said Richard Horton, editor of The Lancet medical journal. "So the annual global neonatal mortality is equivalent to all newly born babies in western Europe being entirely wiped out," he added. "That equals 10,000-11,000...

AIDS among infants, which only a decade ago took the lives of hundreds of babies a year and left doctors in despair, may be on the verge of being eliminated in the United States, public health officials say. In 1990, as many as 2,000 babies were born infected with H.I.V., the virus that causes AIDS; now, that number has been reduced to a bit more than 200 a year, according to health officials. In New York City, the center of the epidemic, there were 321 newborns infected with H.I.V. in 1990, the year the virus peaked among newborns in the...

ATLANTA - U.S. infant mortality has climbed for the first time in more than four decades, in part because older women are putting off motherhood and then having multiple babies via fertility drugs, the government said Wednesday. At the same time, U.S. life expectancy reached an all-time high of 77.4 years in 2002, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. Life expectancy in 2001 was 77.2 years. The nation's infant mortality rate climbed from 6.8 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2001 to 7.0 deaths per 1,000 in 2002. The last time the rate rose was in 1958. "We...

<p>A draft version of the Environmental Protect Agency's "Report on the Environment" shows cleaner air, purer drinking water, better-protected land and healthier Americans.</p> <p>"We have made much progress over the past 30 years, but there is still more to be done," said EPA Administrator Christine Todd Whitman. "This draft report is a stepping stone toward helping EPA identify future data and research needs, and we are already putting this knowledge to work."</p>

<p>KABUL, Afghanistan - The child sits in a dim and crowded hospital room, staring far into the distance. At first glance it is hard to tell whether the child is a boy or a girl, but the clue lies in the tiny newborn cradled in her arms.</p>