Penza, 23 June 2017. PenzaNews. The Penza region can be proud of its success in infant mortality reduction. Such opinion was expressed by the Minister of Health of the Russian Federation Veronika Skvortsova at the meeting of headquarters on perinatal centre construction in Penza, which was held at the premises of the Burdenko regional hospital on Friday, June 23.

© PenzaNewsBuy the photo

"Ivan Alexandrovich [Belozertsev, the governor of the Penza region], I would like to thank you and your team for effective coordination of maternity and childhood protection service during the construction period. The same as you, we are also proud of the results you achieved within four months of the current year. Infant mortality decreased sharply and equals to 3.4 per a thousand of livebirth cases," she said.

The minister noted that it was "one of the pioneering results for our country and for the whole world".

"We are proud of the fact that at present the infant mortality rate in the country amounts to 5.2, when it used to be almost 9," Veronika Skvortsova added.

The head of the Ministry of Health of Russia urged to maintain such a high result in the Penza region.