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Pneumonia responsible for 20% of child deaths: Agencies
Global health bodies highlight essential interventions that will help reduce the incidence of pneumonia as the disease remains the single biggest killer of children under five globally
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lobal health bodies highlight essential interventions that will help reduce the incidence of pneumonia as the disease remains the single biggest killer of children under five globally.
Pneumonia claims the lives of more than 1 million girls and boys every year despite pneumonia deaths being preventable.
The GAVI Alliance, UNICEF and the World Health Organization (WHO) say in a joint statement that essential action needs to be taken to help end child deaths from the disease.
'Every 30 seconds, a child younger than five dies of pneumonia. This is a great shame as we know what it takes to prevent children from dying of this illness,' said UNICEF's chief of health, Mickey Chopra, in an official statement to commemorate the fifth World Pneumonia Day themed 'Innovate to End Child Pneumonia' on Tuesday.
'Tackling pneumonia doesn't necessarily need complicated solutions,' he went on.
It is said that many things contribute to pneumonia, and no single intervention can effectively prevent, treat and control it.
Five simple but effective interventions, if implemented properly, will help reduce the burden of the disease that is responsible for almost 20 percent of all child deaths around the world.
These comprise exclusive breast-feeding for six months and continued breast-feeding complemented by nutritious solid foods up to age 2 and vaccination against whooping cough, measles, Haemophilus influenzae type B (Hib) and pneumococcus.
Other interventions include safe drinking water, sanitation and hand-washing facilities; improved cooking stoves to reduce indoor air pollution and treatment, including amoxicillin dispersible tablets and oxygen.
WHO and UNICEF released an Integrated Global Action Plan for the Prevention and Control of Pneumonia and Diarrhea (GAPPD) in April as they recognized that child mortality cannot be addressed in a vacuum, but only through integrated efforts.
GAPPD presents an innovative framework bringing together prevention, protection and control of both pneumonia and diarrhea ' two of the world's leading killers of children under 5 - to make more efficient and effective use of scarce health resources. (ebf)
