Serbia

MDG 4: REDUCE CHILD MORTALITY

In the Republic of Serbia, there has been progress when it comes to the reduction of the child mortality rate. Mortality rates are significantly dropping both among children under the age of five and among infants, in the perinatal and in neonatal periods. This is certainly due to better coverage by modern antenatal and postnatal health care, but also due to improvements in immunization coverage. Vaccination coverage is growing and reaching high values. The percentage of exclusively breastfed infants up to the age of six months is also increasing.

Even with these improvements on the territory of the Republic of Serbia as a whole, there are significant disparities to be noted, according to regional level and socio-economic status. In some population groups, for example among the Roma, the indicators are substantially lower in comparison to the national average. Even though the existing data are not enough to monitor trends in the Roma population, research indicates that among the Roma, the mortality rate of children under the age of five is up to three time s higher than the Serbian average, while vaccination coverage is substantially lower. Indicators are especially unfavorable for the population living in Roma settlements.

In 2008, mortality of children under the age of five in the Republic of Serbia stood at 7.8 deaths per 1000 live births, which is at the level of this indicator's value in countries that became EU members after 2004 that now stands at 8.6 deaths per1000 live births (WHO, HFA). In these countries however, the value of this indicator is above the EU average which, in 2007, was 5.47 deaths per 1000 live births (WHO, HFA). The value of this indicator is approximately 2.5 deaths higher for boys in comparison to girls.

Objectives	Indicators
1. Between 2000 and 2015, reduce mortality of children under the age of five by an average of 50%	Mortality rate of children under the age of five Mortality rate of infants Rate of perinatal mortality Rate of neonatal mortality Mortality rate of children under the age of five in the Roma population Mortality rate of infants in the Roma population
2. Between 2000 and 2015, improve the coverage of women by antenatal and postnatal healthcare by at least one-third.	Coverage of women by modern healthcare during the first trimester of pregnancy (percentage of women who visited medical doctors in the first trimester of pregnancy) Percentage of women covered by at least one medical field visit during pregnancy Average number of medical field visits to mothers and newborn babies during the first five days after childbirth
3. Between 2000 and 2015, halve the mortality rate of children under the age of 19 from external causes of death	Specific morality rate of children under the age of 19 from an external causes of death
4. Between 2000 and 2015, increase the percentage of exclusively breastfed infants from birth until six months of age	Percentage of exclusively breastfed infants from birth until six months of age Percentage of exclusively breastfed infants from birth until six months of age in the Roma population
5. Between 2000 and 2015, improve the coverage of children by mandatory immunizations to 99.0%	Percentage of children vaccinated against measles in the first 18 months of life Percentage of Roma children vaccinated against diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis in the first year of life Percentage of Roma children vaccinated against measles in the first 18 months of life