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Top stories to read on World Pneumonia Day
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Although pneumonia can be prevented by immunization, good hygiene practices and adequate nutrition, it accounted for the deaths of more than 920,000 children aged younger than 5 years worldwide in 2015, according to WHO.
According to WHO, only one-third of children with the illness receive the antibiotics that are needed to treat it. If two common immunizations — pneumococcal conjugate vaccine and Haemophilus influenzae type b-containing vaccine — were used routinely in the world’s poorest countries, 2.9 million lives would be saved and 52 million cases would be prevented by 2020, according to CDC data published in a 2016 MMWR.
Nov. 12 is World Pneumonia Day. Infectious Disease News has compiled a list of top stories to highlight the severity of the disease and the latest clinical information regarding treatment and prevention.
Lefamulin effective against bacterial pneumonia in phase 3 trial
Lefamulin, a novel antibiotic being developed by Nabriva Therapeutics, was effective in a global phase 3 trial investigating its use in patients with community-acquired bacterial pneumonia, or CABP, the leading cause of infectious death in the United States. Read more.
Too few adults with work-related asthma receive pneumococcal vaccine
Slightly more than half of all adults with work-related asthma had received a pneumococcal vaccine — less than the Healthy People 2020 target level recommended by the CDC, study data showed. Read more.
Nearly one in four adult outpatients with CAP fail antibiotic therapy
Approximately one in four adult outpatients prescribed antibiotic therapy for community-acquired pneumonia did not adequately respond to treatment, according to data presented at the 2017 American Thoracic Society International Conference. Read more.
Pneumococcal vaccine series uptake low despite ACIP recommendation
Two years after the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices recommended routine use of a two-vaccine series to prevent pneumococcal infection in seniors, uptake of the series remained below 20% in 2016, according to researchers. Read more.
CAP hospitalizes more than 1.5 million patients each year
Community-acquired pneumonia creates a substantial health care burden in the U.S., forcing the hospitalization of more than 1.5 million adults each year and killing approximately 100,000 patients, according to recently published findings. Read more.
Lower respiratory tract infections remain leading infectious cause of death worldwide
Lower respiratory infections accounted for 2.74 million deaths in 2015, making them the fifth leading cause of death and leading infectious cause of death worldwide, according to data from the Global Burden of Disease 2015 study. Read more.
References:
M MWR M orb Mortal Wkly Rep. 2016;doi:10.15585/mmwr.mm6544a10.
WHO. Pneumonia Fact Sheet. http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs331/en/. Accessed on November 9, 2017.