ABSTRACT Bangladesh made substantial gains in child survival over two decades, with the under‐five mortality rate falling from 94 to 30 per 1000 live births between 2000 and 2020. Recent data from the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, however, point to a troubling reversal. The infant mortality rate rose to 27 per 1000 live births in 2023, whereas neonatal mortality climbed from 16 to 20 per 1000 live births within a single year. More than 100,000 children under 5 died in 2023, with two‐thirds of deaths occurring in the first month of life. Bangladesh also records around 63,000 stillbirths annually, representing a substantial public health burden and reflecting persistent gaps in maternal and antenatal care. Contributing factors include preterm birth, limited skilled attendance at delivery, pneumonia, malnutrition, and disruptions from the COVID‐19 pandemic. Strengthening rural healthcare, expanding immunization, and improving maternal and neonatal care are essential if Bangladesh is to meet its Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 3.2 targets by 2030.
Rahman et al. (Fri,) studied this question.