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Infant mortality, child mortality, water supply and sanitation coverage, and GNP per capita in six countries Country Infant mortality rate* (0-1 years) (/ 1000) Child mortality* (0-5 years, cumulative) (/1000) Access to safe water** (% of population) Access to adequate sanitation** (% of population) GNP per capita*** (US$) Sweden 5 6 100 100 24 740 Chile 15 17 96 71 3 170 Philippines 39 48 84 75 850 Ghana 77 113 56 42 430 Guinea-Bissau 135 207 57 20 240 Afghanistan 159 251 10 8 (<200)+ + estimate, data not available;*1995; **1994; ***1993 Source: WHO, 1997.

Human society is more able than ever before to secure good health for each community. But the remarkable sustained improvement in human health observed in some societies has not been realized everywhere. The contrast between the "least developed countries", where more than 20% of children die before they reach the age of 5, and typical "developed countries", where less than 1% of children will do so, indicates that we are far from doing as well as we would like or in fact could.