This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.
Pneumonia still greatest cause of young child deaths
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
Pneumonia remains the most significant cause of global childhood mortality among children aged younger than 5 years, according to the WHO, UNICEF and the GAVI Alliance.
“Every 30 seconds, a child younger than five dies of pneumonia,” Mickey Chopra, MD, PhD, Chief of Health at UNICEF said in a joint press release from the three agencies. “This is a great shame as we know what it takes to prevent children from dying of this illness. Tackling pneumonia doesn’t necessarily need complicated solutions.”
Mickey Chopra
Five simple interventions can help reduce the burden of the disease including:
- Exclusive breast-feeding up to aged 6 months and continued breast-feeding complimented with nutritious solid foods up to aged 2 years;
- Vaccinating children against pertussis, measles, Haemophilus influenzae type b, and pneumococcus;
- Ensuring safe drinking water, sanitation and hand washing facilities;
- Improving cooking stoves to reduce indoor air pollution; and
- treatment, including amoxicillin dispersible tablets and oxygen.
Today, the fifth annual World Pneumonia Day theme is “Innovate to End Child Pneumonia,” to help recognize that child mortality cannot be addressed in a vacuum, but through integrated efforts. An integrated Global Action Plan for the Prevention and Control of Pneumonia and Diarrhea (GAPPD) was released in April 2013 and presents a framework bringing together prevention, protection and control of pneumonia and diarrhea to make better use of scarce health resources.
Mauritania and Papua New Guinea will introduce pneumococcal vaccine to mark World Pneumonia Day and with the help of the GAVI Alliance, more than 50 countries will also introduce the vaccine by 2015.
“The GAVI Alliance is helping to accelerate the fight against pneumonia by increasing access to pneumococcal vaccines, thanks to GAVI’s innovative Advance Market Commitment, but also to the five-in-one pentavalent vaccine which protected against Haemophilus influenza type b, another major cause of pneumonia,” said Seth Berkley, MD, CEO of the GAVI Alliance.
Additionally, in October, WHO published new technical advice for countries including recommending simpler antibiotic regimens and the release of a handbook to help guide district and health facility staff on how to introduce the vaccine.
“To achieve the vision and goals of the integrated plan – to end preventable deaths from pneumonia and diarrhea in the next generation – the children of the world need to see political will, coordinated efforts, and increased resources at the global and national levels to fight these stubborn killers,” said Elizabeth Mason, MSc, director of WHO’s Department of Maternal, Newborn, Child and Adolescent Health.