CNS: World Pneumonia Day

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[Podcast] Ending preventable #Pneumonia deaths by 2030

[Click here to listen or download this audio recording/ podcast] This is a audio recording of a webinar [watch recording] on world's leading infectious killer of children under the age of five years: Pneumonia. Click here to listen or download this audio recording/ podcast.

[Webinar] Ending preventable #Pneumonia deaths by 2030

[Call to register] Webinar for media on world's leading infectious killer of children < 5: Pneumonia

[Watch recording] [Listen or download podcast]

World's leading infectious killer of children under the age of five years, is Pneumonia. Pneumonia, a common respiratory illness, also has potentially serious outcomes for the elderly. According to Stop Pneumonia, the most vulnerable children are in poor and rural communities, underlining the need to improve equitable access to high quality care, diagnostics, and treatment for all children.

Pneumonia: An outcome of preventable mistakes

Dr Amitava Acharyya, CNS Correspondent, India

Photo credit: CNS

“That men do not learn very much from the lessons of history is the most important of all the lessons of history”--Aldous Huxley
During the early 1900s, pneumonia was the third leading cause of death. Still now it is in endemic condition among under 5 years old children (responsible for 15% of all deaths in children < 5 years old) and geriatric population. The preventive and curative aspects of pneumonia are well established. But, the failure of implementation of proper health care structure, inadequate health promotion and health education among the masses and inadequate supply of anti-biotics remain the causes of this preventable burden.

Photo credit: CNS

Alice Tembe, CNS Special Correspondent, Swaziland
Pneumonia has been noted as one of the most deadly infectious illness for children worldwide, with an estimated 900,000 children dying of pneumonia this year. Dr Amita Pandey, a Professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at K G Medical University, India, presented statistical data showing the incidence of pneumonia in children under five to be approximately 156 million new episodes each year and WHO estimates that death due to pneumonia occurs in 1 in 3 cases. The Director of Policy, Advocacy and Communication at IVAC, Lois Privor-Dumm further indicates that every minute, six children die from pneumonia or diarrhea. The burden of pneumonia screams for attention.

Addressing pneumonia: The deadly childhood illness

Shobha Shukla, CNS (Citizen News Service)

Photo credit: CNS: citizen-news.org

Despite being preventable, pneumonia continues to be a top killer of children under five. It also wreaks 'breath-taking’ havoc in the lives of adults, particularly the elderly, and people living with HIV. According to the 2015 Pneumonia and Diarrhea Progress Report released recently by the International Vaccine Access Center (IVAC) at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, a projected 5.9 million children around the world will die in 2015 before reaching their 5th birthday.

[Call to register] Webinar for media: Every breath counts: Stop pneumonia now!

[Webinar recording] We welcome you to register for an exclusive media webinar on one of the biggest cause of death for children under 5 years of age, Pneumonia. Pneumonia also effects adults, particularly the elderly. Top reason for people living with HIV ending up in intensive care units of hospitals is not heart disease or accident, but pneumonia! Get connected with noted experts from lead agencies such as the International Vaccine Access Center (IVAC), Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease (The Union), King George's Medical University (KGMU), among others, who will present and respond to questions live!

Childhood pneumonia - the forgotten killer

Diana Wangari, CNS Special Correspondent, Kenya
(First published in The Star, Kenya)

If you were asked what were the leading infectious disease killers of children under the age of five, what would your answer be? Unless you were a health professional or keep abreast with health information regarding that particular population, I am almost certain that pneumonia would not find a place in the top three diseases that came across your mind.

Chhatra Karki, CNS Correspondent, Nepal
Developing countries have a major share in the number of deaths of children due to pneumonia which is considered the most dangerous and infectious disease in children below five years of age. Even though pneumonia affects the children in most of the countries in the world, child mortality rate is negligible in the developed countries due to the effective prevention and treatment procedures.

Give child pneumonia the attention it deserves

Diana E Wangari, CNS Special Correspondent

When most people are asked about lung health and infectious diseases, the first condition that probably comes to mind is TB. This is expected as, for decades, TB was regarded as a major killer and it showed no discrimination in choosing its victims, infecting children, women and men; rich and poor alike. Neither was it restrictive in its area of destruction—it could attack different organs--from the lungs to the bones. The fight against TB had to be mounted and the campaigns had to be aggressive to match the evolution of a disease that is seemingly outsmarting all efforts to control by appearing in newer avatars of drug resistant TB.

World Pneumonia Day is observed on 12 November every year since 2009 to bring awareness to this leading killer of children below 5 years of age. An editorial in this month’s International Journal of Tuberculosis and Lung Disease (IJTLD) highlights that pneumonia is a lung disease that affects not only children but people of all ages. Authors Dr Stephen Graham of The Union and Prof Guy B Marks, IJTLD Editor-in-Chief for Lung Disease, write that “pneumonia has been an important cause of death for centuries”.

World Pneumonia Day: 12 November 2013
Pneumonia is the single largest cause of death in children worldwide. Every year, it kills an estimated 1.2 million children under the age of five years, accounting for 18% of all deaths of children under five years old worldwide. Pneumonia affects children and families everywhere, but is most prevalent in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. Dr Stephen M Graham of International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease (The Union) said at the 44th Union World Conference on Lung Health in Paris that children can be protected from pneumonia – it can be prevented with simple interventions, and treated with low-cost, low-tech medication and care. An alarming number of deaths due to childhood pneumonia continue to take place in countries such as India and China.

World Pneumonia Day, 12th November
Lung Week: 12-17 November
Ms Mary Musoke of Kampala in Uganda is expecting to have her third born child in late March or early April 2013, making the delivery timely for the newborn to get its Pneumococcal Conjugate Vaccine (PCV), which debuts in the Uganda public health system for free. Due to the high disease rates of the killer invasive pneumococcal disease (pneumonia, septicaemia and meningitis), a major cause of illness and death, now Government is set to introduce PCV as part of the routine immunization schedule.

Kiran,a healthcare worker
attending to a child with pneumonia

Lung Week is 12-17 November
Despite being preventable and curable, pneumonia is the leading killer of children under 5 years old. In 2011 alone, 1.3 million children died from this preventable and treatable illness, accounting for 18% of child mortality. In 2008, there were an estimated 203,000 deaths due to Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib) and 541,000 deaths due to Streptococcus pneumoniae (pneumococcus) in children under five. Effective vaccine for pneumonia caused by pneumococcus exists - yet children who are likely to be at a high risk of pneumonia are least likely to get the protection.

Lung Week is 12-17 November

According to the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease (The Union), child pneumonia remains a major threat to children under 5 years of age despite the great potential of the pneumococcal vaccine. “Pneumococcal vaccine is an important intervention that is already in use and highly effective in resource-rich settings – and it has great potential in high child-mortality settings too. However, tackling childhood pneumonia is a complex issue that requires a more comprehensive approach than a single vaccine”, said Dr Steve Graham of The Union’s Child Lung Health Division.

Millions of people around the world struggle to breathe, and more than 10 million die each year due to lung diseases, including tuberculosis, asthma, pneumonia, influenza, lung cancer and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Still lung health is less well recognised as a key health indicator as compared to blood pressure or weight. Lung diseases afflict people in every country and every socioeconomic group, but take the heaviest toll on the poor, the old, the weak and the young. There is a critical need to raise awareness of the importance of lung health and bring it to the top of the public health agenda.

November could be dubbed the “lung health month” this year, with advocates organising World Pneumonia Day on 12 November, World chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) Day on 14 November and the whole month designated by some groups as Lung Cancer Awareness month. Yet people are largely unaware of their lung health, according to Dr Nils E Billo, Executive Director of the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease (The Union). “Lung health is as central to health as blood pressure or weight, but most people are unaware of their lungs until something goes wrong”.

Mother’s milk is the ideal nutritionally perfect food for newborns and infants. It is like nectar for the infant and is aptly called the first vaccine that can be given to the child. Apart from the unique ability to nourish the baby, it is also packed with several antibodies (immune globulins) that provide protection against common childhood illnesses, including pneumonia, a prime cause of child mortality which kills more than 4,300 children everyday worldwide. It is safe, easy to digest, is readily available and very affordable.

15 OCTOBER 2011: Atharva, is a 2 years and 10 months old child who is battling for life at the Paediatric Intensive Care Unit (ICU), Chhatrapati Shahuji Maharaj Medical University. Hospitalized for over 3 months the child gets terrified even at the sight of equipments. He tried to hide in his mother’s lap seeing the CNS reporter’s camera and other gadgets. Atharva’s father is a PAC jawan. His mother Mrs. Renu Bala Sharma had a long painful story to tell. “He got fever on the 21st July. We consulted a private doctor in Sujanpura, Alambagh regularly for 3 days that is 22nd, 23rd and 24th July 2011. On the 25th July, he told us that our child has pneumonia.”