Why is pneumonia still a forgotten pandemic?
Nov 01, 2009
IF a child with cough, fever and fast breathing came up to you, would you be able to tell that they have pneumonia? One in five adults cannot. Yet childhood pneumonia is the world’s most deadly disease. The statistics alone can take your breath away.
By Dr Daniel Tumwine
IF a child with cough, fever and fast breathing came up to you, would you be able to tell that they have pneumonia? One in five adults cannot. Yet childhood pneumonia is the world’s most deadly disease. The statistics alone can take your breath away.
There will be 150 million episodes of pneumonia in children under five years this year alone. Of these, 11 to 20 million will be severe enough to require hospitalisation.
Unfortunately 2 million of these children will die — the vast majority, in a place like Uganda. If nothing is done about it, one in five parents or guardians will still not be able to tell that their child has pneumonia.
Pneumonia will continue to cause more deaths than measles, malaria and AIDS combined, and life will go on.
Pneumonia can lead to death within the first 48 hours. It is an easily preventable disease and is, for the most part, completely treatable. A full dose of treatment costs about $30 (sh60,000).
In Uganda alone, 27,000 children (the size of Ibanda, Luweero or Adjumani towns) will die before their fifth birthday because of pneumonia this year. Yet it continues to receive little press, modest funding, inadequate attention from governments, local health programmes, bi and multilateral funding partners and there is a shortage of modern era research into how to better manage the disease.Pneumonia is also the most common cause of illness, hospitalisation and death in HIV-infected children.
In fact, 90% of HIV-infected children will develop a respiratory illness during the course of their HIV disease — and most of these illnesses will be due to pneumonia.
An HIV-positive child is almost 10 times more likely to die from pneumonia than one who is not.
Other risk factors for pneumonia include malnutrition, indoor air pollution with solid fuels, overcrowding, and any other form of lowered immunity.
Proven preventive measures include immunisation, promotion of exclusive breastfeeding during the first few months of life, zinc supplementation, control of indoor air pollution, prevention of mother-to-child HIV transmission and pneumonia prophylaxis in high HIV prevalent areas.
So why do so many children continue to die from a disease that is completely preventable and treatable in a day and age when East Africans are taking tours in outer space?
Why do such staggering figures not indict governments, and world bodies to mobilise a global effort to address pneumonia? Why is pneumonia still a forgotten pandemic?
The main cause of the high mortality from pneumonia is a failure of recognition of the early signs and symptoms of pneumonia by guardians, parents and medical workers.
There is also lack of access to effective health services. One cannot access health care when they do not see a need to. Caretakers, therefore, should be conversant with signs of pneumonia.
A child with pneumonia will have a cough and fast breathing. If, in addition, there is a fever, drowsiness, flaring of the nostrils, prominence of ribs on breathing in, or difficulty in breathing, then the child may need urgent hospitalisation with or without oxygen.
Remember, pneumonia kills within 48 hours and is by a stretch the world’s largest killer of children. Let not ignorance lead to the death of a loved one. For it was a wise being who wrote, “my people die for lack of knowledgeâ€.
The writer is the general secretary Uganda Paediatric Association
IF a child with cough, fever and fast breathing came up to you, would you be able to tell that they have pneumonia? One in five adults cannot. Yet childhood pneumonia is the world’s most deadly disease. The statistics alone can take your breath away.
There will be 150 million episodes of pneumonia in children under five years this year alone. Of these, 11 to 20 million will be severe enough to require hospitalisation.
Unfortunately 2 million of these children will die — the vast majority, in a place like Uganda. If nothing is done about it, one in five parents or guardians will still not be able to tell that their child has pneumonia.
Pneumonia will continue to cause more deaths than measles, malaria and AIDS combined, and life will go on.
Pneumonia can lead to death within the first 48 hours. It is an easily preventable disease and is, for the most part, completely treatable. A full dose of treatment costs about $30 (sh60,000).
In Uganda alone, 27,000 children (the size of Ibanda, Luweero or Adjumani towns) will die before their fifth birthday because of pneumonia this year. Yet it continues to receive little press, modest funding, inadequate attention from governments, local health programmes, bi and multilateral funding partners and there is a shortage of modern era research into how to better manage the disease.Pneumonia is also the most common cause of illness, hospitalisation and death in HIV-infected children.
In fact, 90% of HIV-infected children will develop a respiratory illness during the course of their HIV disease — and most of these illnesses will be due to pneumonia.
An HIV-positive child is almost 10 times more likely to die from pneumonia than one who is not.
Other risk factors for pneumonia include malnutrition, indoor air pollution with solid fuels, overcrowding, and any other form of lowered immunity.
Proven preventive measures include immunisation, promotion of exclusive breastfeeding during the first few months of life, zinc supplementation, control of indoor air pollution, prevention of mother-to-child HIV transmission and pneumonia prophylaxis in high HIV prevalent areas.
So why do so many children continue to die from a disease that is completely preventable and treatable in a day and age when East Africans are taking tours in outer space?
Why do such staggering figures not indict governments, and world bodies to mobilise a global effort to address pneumonia? Why is pneumonia still a forgotten pandemic?
The main cause of the high mortality from pneumonia is a failure of recognition of the early signs and symptoms of pneumonia by guardians, parents and medical workers.
There is also lack of access to effective health services. One cannot access health care when they do not see a need to. Caretakers, therefore, should be conversant with signs of pneumonia.
A child with pneumonia will have a cough and fast breathing. If, in addition, there is a fever, drowsiness, flaring of the nostrils, prominence of ribs on breathing in, or difficulty in breathing, then the child may need urgent hospitalisation with or without oxygen.
Remember, pneumonia kills within 48 hours and is by a stretch the world’s largest killer of children. Let not ignorance lead to the death of a loved one. For it was a wise being who wrote, “my people die for lack of knowledgeâ€.
The writer is the general secretary Uganda Paediatric Association