Abstract

CORDERO VALDIVIA, Dilberth; AGUILAR LIENDO, Ana Maria  and  ZAMORA GUTIERREZ, Adalid. Evolution of the infant mortality in Bolivia. Rev. bol. ped. [online]. 2005, vol.44, n.3, pp.181-188. ISSN 1024-0675.

Bolivia occupies the second place in the ranking among countries with greater rates of child and infant mortality in Latin America and the Caribbean region. According to the reports of the Demographic and Health Survey (DHS), a sustained reduction of these rates is appreciated. The purpose of the present article is to analyze the probable causes related to this reduction. The analysis was carried out on the basis of a causal model developed by the World Bank, and the main source of information was the DHS reports. The socio-economic conditions of Bolivians have not significantly improved during the last 10 years; on the contrary, they have got worse. The element that could has greater relation with the mortality rates reduction is the sustainability, during three government periods, of a system of public insurance, which incorporates to the IMCI (Integrated Management of Childhood Illness) as the model of child care. Other element could be the improvement of some key child care practices. The future decrease of the child and infant mortality will depend on the health system capacity to been adapted to the national decentralization process; continuity and increasing improvement of the public health insurance and will be indispensable the quality of life improvement of the poorest Bolivians. It will be very difficult that the health sector, in an independent way and in a poverty context, can maintain or improve one of the most sensitive indicators to the country conditions: the child/infant mortality rate.

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