Sunday edition of the NY Times had an article on infant mortality Mississippi among blacks.
In 2005, 17 out of every 1,000 children born to black parents died, up from 14.2 per 1,000 the year before. The paper blames the reversal on a combination of obesity, poverty and cuts to social programs.
The overall jump in Mississippi meant that 65 more babies died in 2005 than in the previous year, for a total of 481.
The article does mention one bright spot— a charity, Cary Christian Center, in Sharkey County, one of the state’s poorest, managed to cut the mortality rate by two-thirds by bussing pregnant women in to clinics to get care.
According to the 2006 report by the Partnership for A Healthy Community, the infant mortality rate for blacks in Escambia County is 13.5 per thousand births!
The National Average is 6.9 per thousand.
Read article: In Turnabout, Infant Deaths Climb in South
Tell me poverty and health care aren’t issues in our community.