Health officials are planning a meeting to raise awareness of Alabama’s worsening infant death rate.

The Infant Mortality Reduction Summit is scheduled Friday at Auburn University at Montgomery.

Experts will discuss the problem of infant deaths in the state, which has one of the nation’s worst rates.

Families who lost children will participate in a panel discussion about their experiences.

The Alabama Department of Public Health says the state’s infant mortality rate of 9.1 deaths for every 1,000 live births in 2016 was worse than the year before.

The rate means 59,090 children were born in the state in 2016, and 537 of them died before their first birthday.

That is an increase of 43 infant deaths from 2015.

There is no charge to attend the summit.
(Associated Press, copyright 2018)

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