Russian President Vladimir Putin had a working meeting with Healthcare Minister Veronika Skvortsova on March 9.
Russian President Vladimir Putin had a working meeting with Healthcare Minister Veronika Skvortsova on March 9.
«I would like to note that in spite of the certain financial and economic fluctuations, we were able to maintain the positive trends we have been seeing over the course of the previous several years. A very important, positive result was the continued, significant decline in infant and maternal mortality. Infant mortality decreased by 12 percent and even more in 2015, reaching 6,5 per 1,000 live births, and dropped by another 4,6 percent in January to 6,2 per 1,000. This is an absolute historic minimum», - Skvortsova said.
According to her words more than half of Russia’s regions – 44 out of 85 – have infant mortality rates lower than Russia’s average, and include some of the best rates in the world: for example, it’s 1,7 per 1,000 in Tomsk Region, 2,3 in Tambov and Tula regions, and 2,9 in Kabardino-Balkaria. There are nearly 20 regions with rates below 3,5 or 4 per 1,000.
«Maternal mortality has also dropped by over 11 percent and reached a historic minimum. We hope that in 2016, we will build 32 perinatal centres in 30 regions. We are monitoring this progress constantly and very carefully. We hope that by December, all construction will be complete. This will provide powerful additional momentum for further development and overall, we currently have no doubt that we can achieve the lowest global rates for infant and maternal mortality», - minister noted.
She added: «Russians’ life expectancy has increased to just over 71,2 years, and much of this increase was observed among men – a six-month increase in 2015. Thus, although we still have a high discrepancy in life expectancy between men and women, it has been reduced slightly. And although the gap used to be higher than 11 years, at 11,2 years, it has now declined to a difference of 10,8 years».
