Appalachia: The Death Belt

I have an admitted mania for "malady maps", but this one -- mortality rates among children from birth to age 19 -- should capture the attention of everyone in West Virginia and Appalachia. To put it none too delicately, we already suffer from a dearth of young people. We don't need to be killing them off at a rate that's 50% greater than the national average.

For the unpleasant details about childhood death and its causes, see the story by David Brown in today's Washington Post.