The United Nation’s Children’s fund (UNICEF) has announced that Nigerian children made up the highest number of global child death caused by pneumonia with an estimate of 162,000 deaths in 2018.
According to the report, malnutrition, indoor air pollution as well as outdoor air pollution have been identified as the major risk factors for child pneumonia deaths in Nigeria as most global child pneumonia deaths occurred among children under the age of two, and almost 153,000 within the first month of life with18 deaths every hour.
Pernille Ironside, Acting UNICEF representative in Nigeria, in a statement said “pneumonia is a deadly disease and takes so many children’s lives. This killer disease has been largely forgotten on the global and national health agendas. We can and must change this”.
“Pneumonia is caused by bacteria, viruses or fungi, and leaves children fighting for breath as their lungs fill with pus and fluid”.
According to the report, Nigeria (162,000), India (127,000), Pakistan (58,000), the Democratic Republic of Congo (40,000) and Ethiopia (32,000) accounted for more than half of child pneumonia deaths in 2018, while more children under the age of five died from the disease in 2018 than from any other, as 437,000 children under five died due to diarrhoea and 272,000 to malaria.
“The disease can be prevented with vaccines, and easily treated with low-cost antibiotics if properly diagnosed. But tens of millions of children are still going unvaccinated – and one in three with symptoms does not receive essential medical care”.
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“Children with severe cases of pneumonia may also require oxygen treatment, which is rarely available in the poorest countries to the children who need it,” Ironside said.
Ironside further lamented the poor funding available to tackling pneumonia as only 3percent of current global infectious disease research spending is allocated to pneumonia, despite the disease causing 15 percent of deaths in children under the age of five.
“Increased investment is critical to the fight against this disease. Only through cost-effective protective, preventative and treatment interventions delivered to where children are – including especially the most vulnerable and hardest-to-reach – will we be able to save hundreds of thousands of lives in Nigeria.”
Ironside speaking further urged all governments in the worst-affected countries to develop and implement Pneumonia Control Strategies to reduce child pneumonia deaths; and to improve access to primary health care as part of a wider strategy for universal health coverage Richer countries.
“We urge international donors and private sector companies to boost immunisation coverage by reducing the cost of key vaccines and ensuring the successful replenishment of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance; and to increase funding for research and innovation to tackle pneumonia,” he concluded.
