Death rate of black babies stuns Grand Rapids: Black Infants 3x More Likely to Die than Whites
Wednesday, February 16, 2005 at 08:24PM
TheSpook
The city's black babies are dying at a rate that is the highest of
Michigan's big cities, and three times the rate of the city's white
infants. "Grand Rapids has one of the highest infant mortality rates in
Michigan, more than Detroit," said Caroline Pyle, executive director
the Grand Rapids African American Health Institute. "What is staggering
is that in spite of the numbers, there are resources here." In Grand
Rapids, the infant mortality rate for 2001-03 was 22.4 for black babies
and 7.5 for white babies. It was the highest rate for large Michigan
cities, surpassing Detroit, Flint and Muskegon. The Michigan Department
of Community Health is focused on black infant death rates because the
numbers are so alarming, said Doug Patterson, director of its Bureau of
Child and Family Programs. Julie Bonewell, clinical manager of Spectrum
Health Healthier Communities, who is collaborating with agencies to
work on the problem, said the top three killers of white babies are
heart or genetic defects, premature birth, and Sudden Infant Death
Syndrome. For black babies, the order is different: premature birth,
followed by heart or genetic defects, then SIDS. [more]
Article originally appeared on (http://brownwatch.com/).
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