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Nine million children at risk of dying of pneumonia - UNICEF
Cause. Malnutrition is one of the major causes of pneumonia deaths among children, according to Unicef. PHOTO BY RACHEL MABALA
More than nine million children are at risk of dying in the next 10 years unless world governments increase efforts in fighting pneumonia, Unicef told world leaders gathered for Global Forum on Childhood Pneumonia in Barcelona, Spain, on Wednesday.
Ms Henrietta Fore, the Unicef executive director, said world governments are not doing enough to curb the problem of pneumonia.
“If we are serious about saving the lives of children, we have to get serious about fighting pneumonia. This means making the right diagnosis and prescribing the right treatment,” Ms Fore said.
It also means addressing the major causes of pneumonia deaths like malnutrition, lack of access to vaccines and antibiotics, and tackling the more difficult challenge of air pollution, according to Ms Fore.
However, Mr Kevin Charles Watkins, the chief executive officer of Save the Children, maintains that embracing and scaling up modalities such as medical oxygen and reducing levels of air pollution will increase the number of lives saved.
“These results show what is possible. It would be morally indefensible to stand and allow millions of children continue to die for want of vaccines, affordable antibiotics and routine oxygen treatment,” he said, citing a study by Johns Hopkins University about scaling up pneumonia treatment to reach more children.
Dr Jane Ruth Aceng, the minister of Health, who is attending the event, said pneumonia is a public health burden in Uganda.
“Pneumonia accounts for 10 per cent of under five deaths in Uganda,” the minister said.
Dr Aceng said at least 25 children in Uganda die of pneumonia every day.
She said since 2012, the Government of Uganda has put great focus on fighting pneumonia.
“Government has been scaling up approaches to protect, prevent and treat pneumonia and diarrhoea among under-fives since 2012,” the minister added.
She said government has also been providing treatment of pneumonia with appropriate antibiotics.
The minister also stated that by engaging partners, the Ministry of Health launched the national oxygen scale up plan to improve oxygen availability to all health facilities.
Background
Pneumonia cases. Child deaths from pneumonia are concentrated in the world’s poorest countries, including Uganda, and it is the most deprived and marginalised children who suffer the most.
Pneumonia is caused by bacteria, viruses or fungi, and leaves children fighting for breath as their lungs fill with pus and fluid.
World over, it is the biggest single killer of children, claiming the lives of 800,000 children last year, or one child every 39 seconds.
Although some types of pneumonia can be prevented with vaccines and can be easily treated with low-cost antibiotics if properly diagnosed, tens of millions of children are still unvaccinated – and one in three children with symptoms do not receive essential medical care.
Forecasts show 6.3 million children under the age of five could die from pneumonia between 2020 and 2030, at current trends.
