High vaccine coverage translates to low infant mortality rates in the Marshall Islands, the new reports suggest.
Ebeye Island has the best immunization completion record for two year old children in the Marshall Islands and also the lowest infant death rate, while remote outer atolls that have poor immunization coverage are seeing about one in 12 infants dying annually, a report issued by the government’s Economic Policy, Planning and Statistics Office shows.
The immunization completion rate for 2008 for children born in 2006 on Ebeye Island is 98 percent, while Majuro, the capital, is only 66.6 percent, the report said. The report did not address outer island immunizations, but previous reports have pegged immunization completion levels at 50 percent or less on most remote islands where about 25 percent of the country’s 53,000 people live.
To be completely immunized by two years, a child must receive six different immunizations, several of which require two or three shots spaced out a year or more after birth.
“There has been steady and excellent progress on Ebeye with coverage,” said Planning office Director Carl Hacker. “What is being done there should be studied in order to improve Majuro and outer islands coverage rates.”
A second report on infant mortality rates shows that baby deaths have generally declined from 10 years ago, but that the outer islands remain high by standards in the Pacific region. “Outer Islands infant mortality appears to be a disaster,” Hacker said.
In 2000, the infant mortality rate, or IMR, for the Marshall Islands hit a high of nearly 44 deaths per 1,000 births. This included 37 for Majuro, 25 for Ebeye and a whopping 102 for the outer islands.
Last year, the overall Marshall Islands baby death rate per 1,000 births was 24. Ebeye Island was the lowest, with slightly under nine per 1,000.
