Multi-Million Dollar Campaign Helps Sacramento County Reduce High Mortality Rates For Black Infants
Sacramento County had a 45 percent drop in black infant deaths between 2013 and 2016. “We wanted to jump through the ceiling when we saw this,” said consultant Lynne Cannady.
Capital Public Radio/KXJZ:
Black Infant Death Rates Down In Sacramento Following Massive Community Efforts
Government and community leaders have described lowering Sacramento’s African-American child death rates as “moving a mountain.” Seven years after identifying the problem, they’re celebrating a step in the right direction. For more than two decades, black children in Sacramento have died at twice the rate of other racial groups due to perinatal conditions, unsafe sleep, child abuse and homicide, according to data from the county’s child death review team. (Caiola, 12/3)
Sacramento Bee:
Black Children Die At A Disproportionate Rate In Sacramento County. Here’s Why That Rate Has Dropped 45 Percent
Sacramento County had a 45 percent drop in black infant deaths between 2013 and 2016, including a 18 percent decrease in black babies born preterm and a 54 percent decrease in black infants dying from sleep-related incidents, according to the most recent county data. Now, about seven black infants die out of every 1,000, compared to the overall rate for other ethnicities of about five out of 1,000. “To see that data up there really tells the story of us really being committed to this work and educating our families,” said Jackie Rose of the Meadowview-based Rose Family Creative Empowerment Center. “They’re getting it, they’re really getting it.” (Yoon-Hendricks, 12/4)
In other public health news —
KQED:
Medical Detectives: The Last Hope For Families Coping With Rare Diseases
All over the country, specialized strike teams of doctors are giving hope to families who are desperately searching for a diagnosis. The medical sleuths have cracked more than a third of the 382 patient cases they're pursuing, according to a recent paper in the New England Journal of Medicine. The specialists, scattered across 12 clinics nationwide, form the Undiagnosed Disease Network (UDN). Since the program began in 2014 they've identified 31 previously unknown syndromes. (McClurg, 12/3)