Sometimes you read things you need to double check on. World is failing newborn babies:
1. Pakistan: 1 in 22
2. Central African Republic: 1 in 24
3. Afghanistan: 1 in 25
4. Somalia: 1 in 26
5. Lesotho: 1 in 26
6. Guinea-Bissau: 1 in 26
7. South Sudan: 1 in 26
8. Côte d’Ivoire: 1 in 27
9. Mali: 1 in 28
10. Chad: 1 in 28
Let’s let that sink in. Pakistan has worst mortality rate for newborns than Afghanistan, South Sudan, and the Central African Republic. Nations riven by conflict, warfare, and general underdevelopment.
I wouldn’t mind if someone pointed out how there is an artifactual bias in the above analysis. The numbers are horrifying, especially in light of the fact that Pakistan is more prosperous than most of those countries.
You shall judge a nation by how it treats the least amongst us.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2000330
Could it be partly due to genetics?
While I am partial to genetic explanations, this is not one. Wikipedia claims without considerable evidence that Pakistani cousin marriage rate in UK is 50% based on ” Enhanced Genetic Services Project – Evaluation Report (PDF). PHG Foundation / NHS. 2008. p. 9.” First cousin marriage rates in UK are attributed to be the cause of high child mortality.
Hussain and Bittles (Hussein, R.; Bittles, A.H. (1999), Consanguineous marriage and differentials in age at marriage, contraceptive use and fertility in Pakistan, Journal of Biosocial Science, pp. 121–138) provide a lower rate in Pakistan.
In any event, it may be higher incidence of cousin marriage, but that is not what Zack is talking about here, he is talking about the facilities.
Razib 🙂
Before people use this to crap all over Pakistan here (which some commentors do), it would be best to compare it to select states in India. razib already did the comparison before between the BIMARU and subsaharan africa, but many Indian states lie right in this table (http://niti.gov.in/content/infant-mortality-rate-imr-1000-live-births)
Countries
1. Pakistan: 1 in 22
2. Central African Republic: 1 in 24
3. Afghanistan: 1 in 25
4. Somalia: 1 in 26
5. Lesotho: 1 in 26
6. Guinea-Bissau: 1 in 26
7. South Sudan: 1 in 26
8. Côte d’Ivoire: 1 in 27
9. Mali: 1 in 28
10. Chad: 1 in 28
Comparable states that lie in this table are
Madhya Pradesh one in 21.27659574
Assam one in 22.72727273
Odisha one in22.72727273
Uttar Pradesh one in 23.25581395
Rajasthan one in 24.3902439
Chhattisgarh one in 25.64102564
Meghalaya one in 25.64102564
Bihar one in 26.31578947
Uttarakhand one in 26.31578947
Arunachal Pradesh one in27.77777778
Should also look at Pakistan state-wise. I can’t seem to find data for it.
(Only did a cursory such TBH)
IIRC Pakistan HDI is comparable to Bihar but there is severe disparity between states. Pakistani Punjab is almost at par with Indian Punjab but Balochistan trails badly.
The information is available for certain years in PDHS; the 2017-2018 is not updated yet. You can go to PDHS dashboard at
http://nhsrc.pk/dashboards/index1.php?years=2017-18&indid=31
and get that, but, at least in 2012-13, it seems that Pakistan Punjab is representative of Pakistan. Nonetheless, the population of UP is greater than Pakistan, and the population of Bihar is comparable to Pakistan Punjab, and they appear to be comparable data points.
“The numbers are horrifying, especially in light of the fact that Pakistan is more prosperous than most of those countries.”
The blunt conclusion is that Pakistani adults are eating the food meant for their babies.
🙂