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The number of children dying before their fifth birthday has decreased steadily over the past few years, says a UNICEF report. According to the report dated Friday Sept. 11, 2009, child mortality fell to under 9 million in 2008. The average rate of decline from 2000 to 2008 is 2.3% compared to a 1.4% average decline from 1990 to 2000. But UNICEF says, impressive though this is, they are concerned about maternal mortality. Expressing these sentiments in an interview with PEACEFM News, the Chief Health and Nutritionist of UNICEF Ghana, Joanne Greenfield said, that UNICEF is �still worried� as maternal mortality reduction efforts �still seems to be off-track.� Commenting on how the decrease in child mortality was achieved, she indicated that the exceptional partnership between government and donor agencies, the effective use vaccinations, among others, contributed to the reduction. She, however, cautioned against believing that all was well in the health delivery sector. �For the Ghana situation, it�s the strategies implemented by gov�t and with support from partners like UNICEF, plus the greater use of health interventions such as immunization, and insecticide-treated bednets to prevent malaria. All those things have contributed to the reduction�Not only that it stays that way, we have to make sure that it keeps coming down. It�s still at a relatively high comes�increasing coverage of measles vaccines�we need to keep treating children much quicker and prevent these infections with clean water and sanitation,� she said.