The WHO admits a lot more work needs to be done to achieve the Millennium Development Goals by 2015.

In 2009, 40 per cent of all child deaths were newborns with pneumonia, diarrhea and malaria the most likely conditions to kill children under the age of five.

There are positive signs however, with child mortality declining twice the rate it was 20 years ago, deaths of children under five fell from 12.4 million in 1990 to 8.1 million in 2009.

Maternal mortality also declined with the number of women dying as a result of complications during pregnancy and childbirth decreased by 34 per cent from 1990 to 2008.

“This evidence really shows that no country in the world can address health from either an infectious disease perspective or a non-communicable disease one,” WHO’s Department of Health and Statistics and Informatics Ties Boerma said.

“Everyone must develop a health system that address the full range of the health threats in both areas.”

World Health Statistics 2011 is an annual report based on more than 100 health indicators reported by WHO’s 193 Member States and other reliable sources.