GENEVA (Reuters) – One in ten of the some 130 million births around the world each year is premature, the vast majority in poorer countries where chances of survival are low, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said last week. An article in the UN agency's January bulletin also reported a "dramatic rise" in pre-term births in a range of richer countries over the past 20 years, especially in North America and parts of Europe.

Based on studies from the mid-1990s to 2007, it said 85 percent of births before the normal 37-week human gestation period were in Asia, with some 70 million, and in Africa, with more than 40 million annually.

But the highest rates of pre-term deliveries against the overall total of births were in Africa, with an average of nearly 12 percent, and North America, with 10.6 percent, according to the article by WHO specialists and researchers.

In Europe, the figure was only 6.2 percent and in Latin America and the Caribbean just 9.1 percent. Many premature babies in Asia and Africa have no access to effective care, said Dr. Lale Say, a lead author of the article.