A timely arrival for Born Too Soon

摘要

Following on from an inaugural event in 2011, World Prematurity Day falls on Nov 17 this year. Earlier in 2012 a report, Born Too Soon: The Global Action Report on Preterm Birth, documented the disturbing facts that, worldwide, more than 15 million babies are born prematurely each year, with over a million deaths from complications of preterm birth. Quite apart from this enormous number of individual tragedies and their implications for the families affected and health services, premature births will substantially impact countries' ability to achieve Millennium Development Goal 4 (seeking to reduce deaths of children aged under 5 years by 67% over a quarter of a century, 1990-2015). In The Lancet, an Article by Hannah Chang and colleagues reports on preterm births in 39 countries of very high human development index, highlighting some of the underlying issues causing this toll, as well as challenges facing doctors and others responsible for reducing it.