While 92,000 children under-5 die of pneumonia annually in Pakistan, the World Pneumonia Day was marked here like other parts of the world with a resolve that all out efforts will be made for checking the spread of disease by strengthening the immunization programme.
Leading pediatricians stressed upon the need of vaccination to fight pneumonia which is the deadliest disease among children under-five. Dr Tahir Masood, Member National Immunization Technical Advisory group said, "Preventing children from pneumonia is the best strategy to reduce sickness and death from pneumonia. We are very fortunate that Pneumococcal Conjugate Vaccine (pneumonia vaccine) has been introduced in Pakistan's EPI programme in October 2012, and this achievement has made Pakistan become the first South Asian country to include PCV in its national immunization programme."
He further stressed that proper nutrition, clean drinking water and vaccines are 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 this 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 said.
"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 5 years of age. Globally, pneumonia accounts for more than 920,000 deaths among children under 5-year and Pakistan is among top 5 countries, which accounts for 99% of childhood pneumonia cases," said Dr Naeem Zafar, Member Central Executive Committee, Convener Child Rights Committee PPA.
"Provision of health and prevention of diseases is the basic right of every child. It is the responsibility of state, society, and parents to provide this right to the child," he further added.
Describing the disease, Dr Haroon Hamid, Professor of Paediatric Medicine at King Edward Medical College said, "Pneumonia is a form of 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."
"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 said, adding: "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," Dr. Hamid added while speaking about the incidence of disease amongst children.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2019
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