World Pneumonia Day: Focussing Attention On Preventable Deaths

The World Pneumonia Day was observed on November 12, 2010 globally to help bring the pneumonia health crisis to the public’s attention and to encourage policy makers and organizers at the grass roots level to combat this deadly disease.

The “World Pneumonia Day" was first observed on November 2, 2009 after the Global Coalition against Child Pneumonia, the World Health Organization and the United Nations Children's Fund reported that one million children's lives could be saved every year if prevention and interventions for pneumonia, such as cheap but effective vaccines, were widely introduced in developing nations.

According to the first-ever Acute Respiratory Infections Atlas, published by the World Lung Foundation in November 2010, pneumonia accounts for 20 per cent of all child deaths globally, or 1.6 million deaths in 2008, compared to 732,000 children who died from malaria and 200,000 who died from the AIDS virus. There are 156 million new cases of pneumonia each year, 97 per cent of them in developing countries.

As per the Acute Respiratory Infections Atlas, indoor air pollution from cooking stoves, fires and secondhand cigarette smoke are the major causes for respiratory deaths. It said 1.96 million die every year from infections caused by these sources, with another 121,000 deaths due to outdoor pollution.

Dr Dorothy Esangbedo, President, Paediatric Association of Nigeria says that, “Within an hour, 20 children across Nigeria die from pneumonia. This number is the highest in Africa and second highest overall in the world.”

As reported by the Times of India, in India, the casualty is as high as 4,00,000  children each year.

Dr. Tabish Hazir, Professor of Pediatrics at The Children’s Hospital, PIMS, Islamabad said, “An estimated 154 million childhood pneumonia cases occur every year in the developing areas and more than half are reported from 6 countries with Pakistan having an estimated 10 million cases every year.”

Professor Shabir Madhi, of Wits University, enumerated the predisposing factors that can cause a child to develop pneumonia in developing countries, "Pneumococcal disease is much more common in developing countries like Africa. The reason why children in Africa die and the reason why they are more susceptible to developing it is them living in overcrowded settings, them having limited access to getting treatment or antibiotics at the correct time, them being exposed to pollution such as indoor pollution or even parents smoking."

Visit the site: World Pneumonia Day

Read the full story on ‘Nigeria has highest pneumonia burden in Africa’ – Second highest worldwide in the Daily Sun

Read the full story on Pakistan’s fight against combating childhood Pneumonia on World Pneumonia Day in an AP report

Read the full story on Pneumonia Among Leading Causes of Death in Children in allAfrica