TELECOM Digest OnLine - Sorted: Re: Our Telephonic Primacy

Re: Our Telephonic Primacy

BobGoudreau@withheld
Fri, 25 Mar 2005 18:34:16 -0500

[As always, please block my email address=2E]

John Smith wrote:

>Dave Garland wrote (about infant mortality in Cuba):

>> It's true, but the US has far more heroic interventions among extremely
>> low birth weight and extremely premature infants than Cuba=2E Which, of
>> course, are far more likely to die than normal births. I suspect that
>> in Cuba, those get counted as miscarriages, not infants.

> Is this just a guess, or do you have reason to suspect that the
> medical definition of "birth" is different in Cuba? Or perhaps it'
> the definition of "death"?

Actually, yes, he does have reason. Many (perhaps most) other countries,
even developed ones, use a different standard than the US does in
distinguishing between live births and stillbirths. Infant mortality
figures apply only to live births which subsequently die, so stillbirths
don't count. See http://www.opinionjournal.com/best/?id=110006161 for
more info. For example, almost one-third of US infant deaths happened
to very premature babies (less than 1 kg) who wouldn't have even been
counted as live births in Switzerland.

> It seems to me, considering an equal number of premature births, that
> heroic intervention should produce a benefit in the statistics.

Only if they're counted as live births, not stillbirths.

Bob Goudreau
Cary, NC

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