Fernandez, also specialist of the Pan American Health Organization, referring to official data, told Caras y Caretas that this issue should worry the national authorities.

He considered that the infant mortality rate (IMR) grew as never before since records have been kept in the country.

According to information from the Ministry of Public Health (MSP) the IMR stood at 6.2 per thousand live births in 2022, but in 2023 it shot up to 7.3 deaths per thousand births.

The expert argued in social networks about what he described as “dismantling of the First Level of Care in the most socially vulnerable areas”.

He also referred to failures in sex education in the educational system, in public campaigns to prevent unintentional pregnancies and in policies for the early detection of pregnancies.

For the specialist, the figures are even more alarming when the birth rate continues to fall in Uruguay.

In 2015 there were 48,926 births, which last year dropped by 37 percent, when 31,381 births were counted, he said, and called for protecting “the few children who are born”.

jrr/jav/oda/ool