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Every year on November 12, World Pneumonia Day calls attention to the world’s leading killer of children under age five. Pneumonia kills a child every 30 seconds — the majority less than two years old.
The tragedy lies in the fact that despite the grim statistics, pneumonia is one of the most preventable and treatable conditions. Preventing pneumonia averts treatment costs and allows children to become healthy, productive adults.
“Pneumonia can be prevented and cured. Yet, for too long it has been the leading cause of global deaths among children. We know what to do, and we have made great progress — but we must do more. We must scale-up proven solutions and ensure they reach every child in need,” says United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
These proven solutions highlight the importance of integrated approaches to health programmes to increase impact and maximise the use of scarce resources. Integration is not a new topic, but a topical issue, largely because of the rise in single-disease funding.
Building on integration, in early 2013, World Health Organisation and United Nations Children’s Fund released the Global Action Plan for the Prevention and Control of Pneumonia and Diarrhoea, signalling an important shift to jointly target the two biggest killers in children at the same time.
“Pneumonia deaths could be reduced by two thirds if three child health interventions — breastfeeding, vaccination and case management including the provision of appropriate antibiotics — were scaled up to reach 90 per cent of the world’s children,” says WHO and Unicef.
Breastfeeding protects against pneumonia, diarrhoea, malnutrition, and other diseases. Children who are breastfed have a 20 percent lower risk of dying between 28 days and one year than children who are not.
Exclusive breastfeeding should be maintained for a minimum of six months and continued for up to two years or more with complementary foods.
Access to clean drinking water, hand washing facilities and adequate sanitation have been found to protect children against pathogens that cause pneumonia, diarrhoea and other diseases. Reducing household air pollution, especially from second-hand tobacco smoke and wood stoves can also reduce the occurrence of pneumonia in children.
Pneumonia is a common cause of death in infants infected with HIV. HIV is commonly transmitted from mother-to-infant during pregnancy, delivery and breastfeeding.
The new 2013 WHO recommendations include providing antiretroviral therapy — irrespective of CD4 count — to all children with HIV under five years of age and all pregnant and breastfeeding women living with HIV.
Childhood vaccines against pneumococcus, Haemophilus influenza type B (Hib), pertussis and measles has also been found to prevent a significant proportion of pneumonia cases from ever occurring.
Improving access to services and increasing awareness and demand for services within communities is critical in controlling pneumonia.
For more information on the Coalition, its work, and how to be involved, please visit: www.worldpneumoniaday.org
The writer is a medical doctor and an international health columnist that works in collaboration with the World Health Organisation’s goals of disease prevention and control although views expressed do not necessarily reflect endorsement of that organisation.
Online Reporter