news-record.com

GREENSBORO — The infant mortality rate climbed slightly during 2008 in Guilford County to 9.9 per 1,000 live births

and could be more difficult to contain as potential cuts to public health caseworkers loom.

The 2007 infant mortality rate in the county was 9.5 per 1,000.

“We definitely cannot keep doing this,” said Merle Green, the county health director. “We’re running out of bright ideas of doing something with fewer resources.”

The Guilford County Department of Public Health was cut two ways in its budgeting. Staff and money were

taken from the department in the county budget. And the state budget included cuts to programs offered through local health departments to care for poor mothers and poor or disabled children on Medicaid.

The statewide infant mortality rate was 8.5 per 1,000 in 2008, according to the state Center for Health Statistics.

The county’s figures climbed last year and are higher than the state average, but Green said that the local mortality rate is susceptible to fluctuation.

“The numbers are small,” she said. “One outlier can make statistics shift.”

Sixty-three infant deaths were recorded in the county in 2008. There were 1,066 statewide in 2008.

Contact Gerald Witt at 373-7008 or gerald.witt@news-record.com