Infant deaths drop for the third straight year in Ohio, but racial disparity continues and last updated 2020-12-17 16:35:56-05 CLEVELAND â The number of infants who died before their first birthday in Ohio has dropped for the third straight year. In 2019, there were 929 infant deaths, according to a new report from the Ohio Department of Health. There were 356 Black infant deaths in 2019, which is an increase of 17 from 2018. The number is still lower than 2015, 2016, and 2017. Yet the racial disparity gap continues to widen, with Black infants 2.8 times more likely to die than white infants. The number of white infants who died in 2019 was 518, the lowest number in the past 10 years.