Although Uzbekistan has succeeded in lowering its infant-mortality rate from 38.1 deaths per 1,000 live births in 1989 to 18.3 in 2001, the rate remains high in comparison with other CIS and European countries, according to the 2003 UNICEF Social Monitoring report. According to UNICEF, Uzbekistan has the lowest infant-mortality rate among the Central Asian CIS states, while Turkmenistan has the highest -- 20.1 deaths per 1,000 live births. The reasons for the high infant mortality rates in Central Asia --according to UNICEF, up to 12 times higher than in developed countries -- were given as poverty, the poor health and nutrition of pregnant women, infectious diseases, and low-quality medical care. According to uzreport.com, UNICEF suspects that Uzbekistan\'s infant-mortality rate is actually much higher, but the country\'s official figures are obtained using the Soviet definition of infant mortality rather than the internationally accepted World Health Organization definition. (uzreport.com)