Killer pneumonia

I was stunned to read in your newspaper (Gulf Today, Nov.13) that pneumonia killed more than 800,000 babies and young children last year — or one child every 39 seconds — despite being curable and mostly preventable.

Something has to be done about this deadly challenge. The United Nations children’s fund Unicef, the international charity Save The Children and four other health agencies have rightly urged governments to step up investment in vaccines to prevent the disease and in health services and medicines to treat it.

As Seth Berkley, chief executive of the GAVI vaccines alliance, points out, the fact that this preventable, treatable and easily diagnosed disease is still the world’s biggest killer of young children is frankly shocking.

Only after reading the article I realised that pneumonia is a lung disease that can be caused by bacteria, viruses or fungi. Its victims have to fight for breath as their lungs fill with pus and fluid.

It can be prevented with vaccines, and treated with antibiotics and - in severe cases - with oxygen, but in poorer countries, access to these is often limited.

It is sad to hear that developing countries like Nigeria, India, Pakistan, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Ethiopia accounted for more than half the children who died of Pneumonia last year – and that most of them babies who had not reached their second birthday.

The world should wake up to the issue fast as experts have warned that pneumonia will kill nearly 11 million children under five by 2030.

The positive news is that pneumonia, an inflammatory infection of the lungs that may be contracted via viral or bacteria infection, is treatable if caught early enough and the patient’s immune system isn’t compromised.

Awareness and quick action hold the key.

Ravi Nair
By email