Purpose: The infant mortality rate (IMR) is among the most important indicators of a nation's health and well–being. In Slovenia, over the last 55 years, infant mortality (IM) has decreased rapidly and vaccinations are undoubtedly the major contributing factor. In Slovenia, infant immunization is initiated at the age of 3 months. The vaccination schedule includes several doses of combined vaccines that should be administered according to the yearly program on immunization. Methods: In this retrospective study, 279 infants were divided into subgroups in accordance with the vaccination program. The structure of the study design used the data of the National Institute of Public Health of Slovenia regarding the causes of IM for the years 2007–2011 Results: Direct and indirect leading causes of death were infant respiratory distress syndrome (n = 22), extreme immaturity (n = 19), necrotizing enterocolitis (n = 18), extremely low birth weight (n = 14), and hypoplastic left heart syndrome (n = 14). The maximum IMR (85.30%) occurred before the recommended vaccination period. During the prescribed program of vaccination, the IMR was 14.70%. Conclusion: Genetic alterations, congenital abnormalities, and preterm birth complications are the major and leading causes of IM. Most instances of IM occur within the first two months of life, before the recommended vaccinations. During the recommended vaccination period, IM is low and causes of death are largely congenital and genetic diseases. The results of the comparative study during the recommended vaccination schedule by the end of the first year of life from 2007 to 2011 substantiates that the vaccines are not a major cause of IM.
(The book will come out in the publishing house Faculty of Medicine University of Maribor) In 2014, on the tenth anniversary of operations of the University of Maribor Faculty of Medicine, we published the monograph "Ten Years of the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Maribor". In the monograph, we provided a description of the creation and operation of the second Slovenian medical faculty. Much has happened since the first decade and we have already advanced into the second. An attentive observer would not have missed the important milestones of our development from the establishment of the Bologna Reform to our greatest achievement—building an urgently needed faculty on the right riverbank of the Drava River. Following the ideas of the Architecture Professor Boris Podrecca, the faculty is attached to the city and the university. All along, especially since September 2013, we have monitored the development of our medical studies, introduced new features to the program, and developed or renewed basic research studies. Novel appropriate premises and stateof- the-art medical equipment have been the basis for the formation of numerous innovations and changes.
The establishment of the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Maribor in the year 2003 and the beginning of a pedagogical process in the 2004/2005 academic year are those important points in the development of higher education system and growth of the local hospital which present an important achievement for the University of Maribor, health care, town and also the Republic of Slovenia. In the year when the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Maribor celebrates its tenth anniversary of operating, and in the year when the town Maribor records the 850th anniversary of its first written mention (1164, Castrum Marburch) the jubilee is getting a touch of a new milestone. In ten years the Faculty of Medicine has travelled its way to a contemporary, European comparable university study, faced Bologna reform and with relocation to the new construction in the direct vicinity of the fundamental educational base - today the University Medical Centre Maribor – ensured the foundation for further development, especially for expansion of the basic research activity. Telling is a piece of information that in our faculty more than 250 physicians have successfully completed their studies and who, in the period of extremly hard social and economic circumstances, with increasing frequency are looking for their opportunity for work and professional development abroad although they are very much needed at home, for one of the important reasons for the establishment of the second medical faculty in Slovenia was distinctly lack of physicians. The faculty has with the postgraduate study programme Biomedical technology offered also a contemporary doctoral study which to the ambitious, eager for new knowledge enables to realize numerous ideas, all with a purpose to facilitate as qualitative health care as can be. More than fourty Doctors of Science are already realizing their ideas, numerous among them have already been habilitated and are our esteemed professors who follow their predecessors. In front of our faculty there are numerous challenges - ten years is for such an institution a short period but a cross section of previous achievements which we, numerous authors, have gathered in this monography of which the outcome we expect on the celebration of the faculty, yet everything shows also new directions of development. Excellence on all levels is that which has to make us different, competitive to faculties with long tradition, we need to remain always a step ahead of others with the programme as much as with the pedagogical approaches and equipment. And importantly we need to open up into the world. Tasks for a new decade or perhaps more of them?
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