Daily Times

Leading paediatricians have stressed the need of vaccination to fight pneumonia, the most deadly disease among children under five.

As many as 92,000 children under five die of pneumonia annually in Pakistan.

According to the World Health Organization estimates, pneumonia accounts for 16% of the total child deaths making it the leading killer of children less than five years of age worldwide.

“Globally, pneumonia accounts for more than 920,000 deaths among children under five and Pakistan is among top five countries, which account for 99% of childhood pneumonia cases,” said Dr Tahir Masood, Former Pakistan Paediatric Association (PPA) president.

He said that vaccines are considered second only to clean drinking water in reducing infectious diseases. “It is very unfortunate that a preventable and treatable illness is claiming so many precious lives,” he added. “Children under five with severe cases of pneumonia may struggle to breathe, with their chests moving in or retracting during inhalation (known as ‘lower chest wall in drawing’). Young infants may suffer convulsions, unconsciousness, hypothermia, lethargy and feeding problem,” he said.

Dr Sajid Maqbool said, “Preventing children from pneumonia is the best strategy to reduce sickness and death from pneumonia.” “We were very fortunate that pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (pneumonia vaccine) was introduced in Pakistan’s EPI programme in October 2012, and this achievement made Pakistan to become the first South Asian country to include PCV in its national immunisation programme,” he added. He said that proper nutrition, clean drinking water and vaccines were important to fight pneumonia. “Vaccines against pneumococcus, Hib, pertussis and measles can prevent a significant portion of pneumonia cases from ever occurring.”

“We have to increase awareness among parents to fight the deadly disease. Every stakeholder, including doctors, media and advocacy bodies will have to play their strong role to increase awareness and protect our future generation,” he concluded.

Pneumonia is a form acute respiratory infection that affects the lungs. When an individual has pneumonia, the alveoli (small sacs in lungs which fill with air when a healthy person breathes) are filled with pus and fluid, which makes breathing painful and limits oxygen intake.

Published in Daily Times, November 11^th 2018.