Mick Hartley

I don’t suppose we’ll see these figures trumpeted on the front page of the Independent, but they’re worth celebrating:

Infant mortality in Afghanistan has fallen dramatically since the demise of the Taleban, according to a new study, with 40,000 fewer babies dying every year.

Improvements in women’s access to medical care since the Taleban were ousted from power five years ago was cited as the main reason for the death rate becoming significantly lower.

Grim infant and maternal mortality rates have been regularly cited as evidence of Afghanistan’s backwardness after decades of war.

They were also seen as a sign of the slow progress of the internationally funded reconstruction effort.

According to the preliminary results of a Johns Hopkins University study, the infant mortality rate has declined to about 135 per 1,000 live births in 2006, down from an estimated 165 per 1,000 in 2001.

The researchers “found improvements in virtually all aspects of care in almost every province,” the public health ministry and World Bank said in a joint statement on the findings.