[Infant mortality in Kristiansand. The 150-year anniversary of doctor Lochmann and comparison with current...

Professor Ernst Ferdinand Lochmann (1820-91) was born in Kristiansand, Norway. His ideas on infectious diseases, e.g. tuberculosis, were far ahead of his time. He worked for better prophylactic treatment in communicable diseases and was concerned about the high death rates in children in his home town. In Kristiansand, during the 25 years from 1850 to 1874, there were 128 deaths among children under one year of age per 1,000 births. In the same period nearly one-third of the children died before the age of 14 years (8,426 births, 2,592 deaths). In 1995 the death rate for children under one year was four per 1,000 in Kristiansand (Vest-Agder county), and the perinatal mortality (stillbirths and deaths among children under one week) was three per 1,000 births. Priorities in health care are often debated in Norway. The death rate among children is extremely low, and politicians focus on geriatrics and psychiatry. However, even in the last decade (1985-94) significant changes in perinatal mortality and cot deaths (sudden infant death syndrome) are recorded.