1 in 10 births premature: WHO

GENEVA – ONE in 10 of the some 130 million births around the world each year is premature, the vast majority in poorer countries where chances of survival are low, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Monday.

An article in the UN agency’s January bulletin also reported a ‘dramatic rise’ in pre-term births in a range of richer countries over the past 20 years, especially in North America and parts of Europe.

Based on studies from the mid-1990s to 2007, it said 85 per cent of births before the normal 37-week human gestation period were in Asia, with some 70 million, and in Africa, with more than 40 million annually.

But the highest rates of pre-term deliveries against the overall total of births were in Africa, with an average of nearly 12 per cent, and North America, with 10.6 per cent, according to the article by WHO specialists and researchers. In Europe, the figure was only 6.2 per cent and in Latin America and the Caribbean just 9.1 per cent.

Many premature babies in Asia and Africa have no access to effective care, said Dr Lale Say, a lead author of the article.

One born at 32 weeks, weighing less than 2,000 grams, has little chance of survival, the WHO specialist wrote. By contrast, an infant born at 32 weeks in a developed country is as likely to survive as one born at full term. — REUTERS