By Admin
9 million children could die in a decade unless the world acts on pneumonia, leading agencies warn
Malnutrition, air pollution and lack of
access to vaccines and antibiotics among the drivers of preventable deaths from
pneumonia—which last year killed a child every 39 seconds
Boosting efforts to fight pneumonia could avert nearly 9 million child deaths from pneumonia and other major diseases, a new analysis has found ahead of the first-ever global forum on childhood pneumonia in Barcelona (January 29-31).
According to a modelling
by Johns Hopkins University, scaling up pneumonia treatment and prevention
services can save the lives of 3.2 million children under the age of five. It
would also create ‘a ripple effect’ that would prevent 5.7 million extra child
deaths from other major childhood diseases at the same time, underscoring the
need for integrated health services.
Pneumonia
is caused by bacteria, viruses or fungi, and leaves children fighting for
breath as their lungs fill with pus and fluid. It is the biggest single killer
of children, claiming the lives of 800,000 children last year, or 1 child every
39 seconds. Although some types of pneumonia can be prevented with vaccines and
can be easily treated with low-cost antibiotics if properly diagnosed, tens of
millions of children are still unvaccinated – and one in three children with
symptoms do not receive essential medical care.
Child
deaths from pneumonia are concentrated in the world’s poorest countries and it
is the most deprived and marginalised children who suffer the most. Forecasts
show 6.3 million children under the age of five could die from pneumonia
between 2020 and 2030, on current trends. Over the next decade, deaths are
likely to be highest in Nigeria (1.4 million), India (880,000), the Democratic
Republic of Congo (350,000) and Ethiopia (280,000).
Health
interventions aimed at improving nutrition, providing antibiotics and
increasing vaccine coverage, boosting breastfeeding rates – key measures that
reduce the risk of children dying from pneumonia – would also prevent millions
of child deaths from diseases like diarrhoea (2.1 million), sepsis (1.3
million), and measles (280,000).
Kevin
Watkins, Chief Executive of Save the Children, said:
“The number
of lives that could be saved is potentially far higher as the modelling did not
take account of factors like availability of medical oxygen, or action to
reduce levels of air pollution, a major risk factor for pneumonia.”
“These results show what is possible. It would be morally indefensible to stand and allow millions of children to continue to die for want of vaccines, affordable antibiotics and routine oxygen treatment.”
Henrietta
Fore, Executive Director of UNICEF, said:
“If we are
serious about saving the lives of children, we have to get serious about
fighting pneumonia. As the current coronavirus outbreak shows, this means improving
timely detection and prevention. It means making the right diagnosis and
prescribing the right treatment. It also means addressing the major causes of
pneumonia deaths like malnutrition, lack of access to vaccines and antibiotics,
and tackling the more difficult challenge of air pollution.”
Outdoor air
pollution contributes to 17.5 per cent – or nearly one in five – pneumonia
deaths among children under five worldwide, according to a study by the Institute for Health
Metrics and Evaluation (IHME-GBD).
Household pollution from the indoor use of solid cooking fuels contributes to an
additional 195,000 (29.4 per cent) deaths.
Ninety-one per
cent of the world’s population is breathing outdoor air that exceeds WHO
standards. The scale of the air pollution challenge could potentially undermine
the impact of scaling up pneumonia-related interventions.
Other
causes of pneumonia deaths include malnutrition, and lack of access to vaccines
and antibiotics. According to the Johns Hopkins modelling, of the total 8.9
million deaths from all causes that could be averted over the next decade, 3.9
million would be the result of greater efforts to reduce levels of malnutrition
alone.
Dr Seth
Berkley, CEO of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, said:
“Pneumococcal
pneumonia is an easily preventable, often treatable disease – no parent should
go through the agony of losing their child to this disease. Over the past
decade we have made progress in boosting the number of children receiving
lifesaving pneumococcal vaccine and it is vital that we keep up these efforts
to protect the next generation against this deadly disease. Gavi’s donor
pledging conference in June will offer the international community the chance
to help us do so.”
Quique Bassat, Research Professor at
the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal) and Chair of the
Global Forum on Childhood Pneumonia said:
“The disease that kills most children
in the world cannot be neglected any longer in terms of its scarce global
research funding. Research and innovation need to drive policy change, and lead
the way for further decreases in pneumonia-attributable mortality.”
Leith Greenslade, Co-ordinator of the
Every Breath Counts Coalition, said:
“This analysis shows that collective
action to protect children from pneumonia could really boost national efforts
to achieve the SDG for child survival. Governments and international
development agencies must act urgently to protect the most vulnerable
children from malnutrition and exposure to air pollution, and
ensure that they receive pneumonia-fighting vaccines and speedy
diagnosis, child-friendly antibiotics and oxygen if they become sick. If
they don’t, 9 million children’s lives are at stake.”
On January 29-31, the nine leading health and children’s organisations – ISGlobal, Save the Children, UNICEF, Every Breath Counts, “la Caixa” Foundation, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, USAID, Unitaid and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance – are hosting world leaders at the Global Forum on Childhood Pneumonia in Barcelona, the first international forum on childhood pneumonia.
Among the
announcements to be made at the forum include a more
affordable, PCV vaccine from the Serum Institute of India and political
commitments from governments in high-burden countries to develop national
strategies to reduce pneumonia deaths.
ENDS