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From VOA Learning English, |
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this is the Health Report. |
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The United Nations Children's Fund |
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is praising Ethiopia for reaching one of |
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the Millennium Development Goals on child survival. |
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UNICEF officials say Ethiopia has reduced |
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its number of child death by more than two-thirds. |
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Between 1990 and 2012, |
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the country reported a 67 percent drop |
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in the number of children dying |
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before the age of five. |
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Ethiopia's Minister of Health Kesetebirhan Admasu |
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welcomed the good news, |
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but he admitted that even with the improvement |
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Ethiopia is considered a high-mortality country. |
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"If you look at the absolute number of children dying in Ethiopia, |
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it is still huge. |
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We have committed to end all preventive child deaths |
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in a generation by 2035. |
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And we have developed a roadmap to reach that ambitious target." |
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Diarrhea, pneumonia and malaria are the leading causes of death |
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among young children in Ethiopia. |
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In 1990, the country's death rate for children under five |
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was one of the highest in the world, |
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it was 204 death for every 1,000 births. |
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The rate is now at 68 per 1,000, |
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this means that hundreds of thousands of Ethiopian children |
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who might have died in earlier years |
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now reach their fifth birthday. |
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Ethiopia is one of four African countries |
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to have reached a Millennium Development Goal, |
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the other three are Liberia, Malawi and Tanzania. |
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One of the reasons for Ethiopia's success |
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is its Health Extension Program, |
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because of it, |
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38,000 people were employed to bring health care services |
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to a large part of the rural population. |
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Peter Salama is UNICEF representative to Ethiopia. |
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He says Ethiopia's plan of action |
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can serve as an example for other countries: |
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"Several other African countries have come to do study tours, |
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including delegations from Togo, Guinea, Namibia |
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- all came to study the health extension program |
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and see how they can replicate this critical lesson of |
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bringing health care to the doorstep of the rural population." |
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The United Nations first announced |
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the Millennium Development Goals 13 years ago, |
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the goals remain to help countries pay more attention |
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to issues such as fighting extreme poverty. |
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Progress on the Millennium Development Goal of |
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reducing child death is slow in most countries, |
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only 13 of 61 countries are in a position to meet the goal. |
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And that's the Health Report from VOA Learning English. |
