High infant mortality in the big cities of Greece.

During the last 30 years infant mortality in Greece has been falling dramatically. In 1960 of every 100 newly born infants, four died before their first birthday. By 1970 the rate had fallen to 3°/o, in 1980 it was 1-8%, and by 1987 infant mortality had come down to less than 1 2%. As the table shows, large reductions in infant mortality in Greece have occurred at a remarkable speed: within no more than 12 years infant mortality fell almost by half. On average the annual rate of change in infant mortality over the period 1976-87 was-5.700. This is clearly a success. However, satisfaction with overall progress should not make us overlook more specific aspects of this development that involve significant difficulties. Perhaps the most important of all is the level of infant mortality in the big cities: the capital city of Athens with 3 million people, and the northern city of Salonica with 700 000 people (in 1981, the year of the last census). The table makes it clear that the monotonic decrease of infant mortality rates in Greece as a whole is not reflected in a parallel development in Athens. Not only has infant mortality in the capital remained above the national average over the entire period, but there have also been years of rising rates against the The case of Salonica gives even more cause for concern. Infant mortality in 1976-77 was below the national average, but a rise of two per 1000 live births in 1978 and a sharp increase in the early 1980s (from 18-6 in 1982 to 25-2 in 1985) brought current ratios of infant mortality to higher levels than 15 years ago! Average levels of infant mortality per 1000 live births during the entire 12 year period under consideration were found to be 18-99 in Athens and 21-00 in Salonica, compared with 16-66 in the country as a whole. Mean annual rates of change were-4 2o in Athens, + 0 8 0 in Salonica, and (as already mentioned before)-5-70o in Greece as a total. Not only does this show that Athens and Salonica experience considerably higher rates of infant mortality than the national average, but also that the gap is widening: in Athens the pace of reductions is slower than in the rest of the country (and, as the table shows, is further slowing down), while in Salonica the trend is upwards. The …