Background With 4 years until 2015, it is essential to monitor progress towards Millennium
Development Goals (MDGs) 4 and 5. Although estimates of maternal and child mortality
were published in 2010, an update of estimates is timely in view of additional data sources
that have become available and new methods developed. Our aim was to update previous
estimates of maternal and child mortality using better data and more robust methods to
provide the best available evidence for tracking progress on MDGs 4 and 5. Methods We …

Rafael Lozano and colleagues (Sept 24, p 1139) 1 from the Institute for Health Metrics and
Evaluation (IHME) have published revised estimates of under-5 mortality rates (U5MR) and
neonatal mortality rates between 1990 and 2011. For some countries, these estimates
exemplify the hazard of using national data without national dialogue. For South Africa, they
suggest that the U5MR declined from 1990 to a low point around 2000, rising after that.
Although the point estimate for 2011 might be plausible, the trend over the past 20 years is …