News Release

1999-88
June 23, 1999

Health Canada report says Canadian children and youth are making great strides

OTTAWA - Rates of infant mortality, childhood cancer deaths and measles have all declined in Canada in recent years according to a national health surveillance report released by Health Canada's Laboratory Centre for Disease Control today. Canadian children and youth continue to make great strides according to Measuring Up: A Health Surveillance Update on Canadian Children and Youth, but there is room for improvement as indicated by international comparisons.

The Measuring Up report says Canada has demonstrated the most dramatic decline in infant mortality rates in the past 35 years of all industrialized countries with the exception of Japan. Childhood cancer death rates have also declined from seven cancer deaths per 100,000 children in 1971 to three per 100,000 in 1996. Canada was responsible for 40% of all measles cases in the Americas in 1995, but as the report describes, successful immunization efforts have resulted in only 12 measles cases reported in Canada in 1998 and Canadian cases now comprise less than 1% of all reported cases in the Americas.

Alternatively, the report indicates that the prevalence of asthma appears to have increased during the last 20 years and that asthma hospitalization rates in young children are particularly high. While death due to injuries in children has greatly decreased since 1980, 1,280 children and youth died from injuries in 1996, suggesting greater preventive efforts are still required. Furthermore, rates of suicide among Canadian youth have remained steady or increased slightly. Data on teen pregnancy indicate that more must be done to ensure optimum reproductive health for all Canadians.

Governments are increasingly interested in learning more about child well-being and those factors that contribute to healthy child development. The National Children's Agenda Vision Paper notes the importance of information about child development, the need to measure child well-being and monitor children's progress. This Report will contribute to efforts to track the progress of Canada's children.

Health Canada's Laboratory Centre for Disease Control, through its national surveillance networks, detects existing and emerging child health issues of national importance. This knowledge guides our national efforts to address health problems in Canada. Furthermore, the surveillance activities are continually evolving, as reflected in the future development section in each chapter of the report. Detailed knowledge on the health of Canadians, captured through surveillance, helps assure that limited health resources are targeted towards interventions that will have the maximum possible impact on the health of the whole population.

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Margot Geduld
Health Canada
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