Brazil claims to have eliminated childhood malnutrition

Brazil is claiming that that have met another of the Millennium Development Goals by eliminating extreme malnutrition from the country. Since 1989, Brazil says that they cut in half the following: number of people living on less than a dollar, the number infant deaths, and deaths of women during childbirth.

From Fox News Latino, we read more about the achievements being announced from Brazil.

The proportion of underweight Brazilian children under 5 fell by 7.1 percent to 1.8 percent between 1989 and 2006, thus achieving one of the first goals in the eradication of poverty and hunger set by the United Nations to be reached by the year 2015, the Health Ministry said.

Brazil has also substantially reduced the number of people living on an income equivalent to $1 a day, has shrunk the gap between rich and poor, and has increased the employment rate, all areas contemplated in the Millennium Goals.

Health Minister Jose Gomes Temporao said that Brazil should reach the goal of reducing the childhood-mortality rate by 2012, three years before the U.N. target date, if the country "stays its present course."

According to the report, infant mortality fell by 58 percent in Brazil between 1990 and 2008, to the point of having 22.8 deaths for every 1,000 live births, and within three years should fall to 17.8 deaths, which would mean achieving the goal set by the United Nations.

Read more: http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/health/2010/12/15/brazil-claims-eradicated-extreme-poverty/#ixzz18Cq3Hb91