ISLAMABAD - Every year Pneumonia takes the lives of nearly one million children globally, which is more than the deaths caused by HIV/AIDS, malaria and measles combined, said health experts on Monday. Every year, November 12 is marked as the World Pneumonia Day and Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) held a seminar to create awareness on the disease.
Dr Atiya Aabroo, Deputy Director Programs on behalf of Ministry of National Health Services, Regulations and Coordination with reference to the event said that government is cognizant of the fact that investment in the health sector is of utmost importance. She said health is one of the foremost underlying factors that define the welfare of a country’s population, and children, as the building blocks of society has equitable access to quality health service.
The interventions for tackling pneumonia are integral to achieve overall child health, and are needed to reach Sustainable Development Goals. In its resolve to fight Pneumonia, Pakistan has made improvement in Child Health indicators as under five mortalities have decreased to 74/1000 live births from 89/1000 live births, as quoted in the latest Pakistan Demographics and Health Survey (PDHS) 2017-2018, she said.
In Pakistan, 14 percent of children under five years of age suffer from Acute Respiratory Infections (ARI), which can cause Pneumonia, if not diagnosed and treated quickly. Many deaths result from a failure to take the sick child to a health facility on time. Cris Munduate, Deputy Representative United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in Pakistan, said that UNICEF under the Integrated Global Action Plan for Prevention and Control of Pneumonia and Diarrhoea (GAPPD) recommends protecting, preventing and treating infections through proven interventions for improving management of pneumonia, and increasing child survival.
“UNICEF believes that every child, regardless of where they are born, deserves access to life saving vaccines and medicines,” she said. The Ministry of National Health Services Regulation and Coordination, and National and Provincial health authorities are working in collaboration with UNICEF and with the financial support from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to prevent, protect and treat cases of Pneumonia among children under five. Through this initiative, essential commodities have been provided in all districts in Sindh and five districts of Punjab along with strengthening of services for better diagnosis and treatment of pneumonia.
The project is contributing towards reduction of deaths in children aged under five in Pakistan. Preventive measures for pneumonia in children has also been included as an essential component of the National Routine Immunization Strategy and within its framework, the Pakistan Expanded Program on Immunization provides free of cost vaccines for prevention against Hib, pneumococcus, measles and whooping cough (pertussis) diseases in all government health facilities. Speaking on the occasion, Dr Haider Shirazi, Associate Professor Neonatology Department, Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) Islamabad said “Pneumonia is the number one killer disease in children. We, in Pakistan are losing around 250 children each day due to this deadly disease. We can protect our children by breast feeding and immunization. Deaths due to pneumonia can be controlled by early treatment and referral”.
Meanwhile, a seminar was held at Paediatric Department of Benazir Bhutto Hospital in connection with World Pneumonia Day and was attended by Medical Superintendent (MS) BBH Dr Tariq Mehmood Khan Niazi, Head of Paediatric Department Prof Dr Rai Asghar, senior doctors including Dr Muhammad Hussain, Dr Khushdil, Dr Mudassir Sharif and members of PPA.
The expert panel of PPA including Prof Samiyah Naheem Ullah, Prof Mehmood Jamal, Gen (R) Salman Ali, Prof Asifa Murtaza, Dr Ejaz Ahmed Khan, Prof Parveen Akhter Tariq, Brig (R) Shahid Aziz, Brig (R) Munir Akmal Lodhi, Prof Shahzad Munir, Prof Jai Krishon, Dr Mazhar Abbas Rizvi and Dr Ghazala Mumtaz delivered lectures for prevention of childhood pneumonia.
Prof Rai Muhammad Asghar, while addressing the seminar, said pneumonia is the number one infectious killer of children under the age of five globally.
He said pneumonia is still a single leading cause of child mortality, killing a child every 35 seconds. “Pneumonia causes 16 percent of total deaths among children under five years of age, 5 percent of which are neonatal,” he said.
He further said that Pakistan is even far behind some low profile countries in preventing deaths of children under five years of age by this decease. “However, the prevention from pneumonia is possible,” he said adding that the effected children could be vaccinated with EPI injection course.
He said initially children suffered with fever, flu and cough. “Prevention is very easy and moreover very effective vaccine is available in the hospitals. One can protect our children from cold by wrapping them in warm clothes.” he said. He said it was very important to give awareness to community to protect their children from pneumonia.
The other speakers of the seminar said that exposure to household air pollution almost doubled the risk for pneumonia and exclusive breast feeding for the first six months of life is an effective way to protect children from pneumonia, resulting in a 23 percent reduction in incidence.
There is a 15.1 times greater risk of health from pneumonia if the child is not breast fed in the first 6 months. “Good nutrition for older children, adequate Vitamin A supplements, hand washing, clean water and good sanitation can also help protect children from the lethal decease,” the panel experts said. Earlier, a walk was organized by Paediatric Department of Rawalpindi Medical University in collaboration with Pakistan Paediatric Association in connection with World Pneumonia Day at Benazir Bhutto Hospital (BBH).