92,000 children die of pneumonia in Pakistan every year

Experts say health situation improved in Punjab and K-P but not in Sindh and Balochistan

KARACHI: Health experts urged on Tuesday national health policy-makers to put eradication of pneumonia on their top priority list as Pakistan still stands in the top five countries that account for 99 per cent of childhood pneumonia cases. At least 92,000 children die of pneumonia in the country every year.

Briefing the media at the Karachi Press Club on Tuesday, the office-bearers of the Pakistan Pediatric Association (PPA), on the occasion of the World Pneumonia Day, said that the health situation has improved in Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtoonkhwa but not in Sindh and Balochistan.

"The situation in Sindh hasn't improved but deteriorated," said Dr Ayesha Mehnaz, the general secretary of PPA Central and a professor at the paediatrics department of the Civil Hospital, Karachi.



Dr Mehnaz said that most of the children, especially in Sindh, are malnourished. "To treat malnourished children is a challenge for doctors," she added. She said that despite the pneumonia vaccine's availability in the Extended Programme on Immunisation (EPI) for free, 46 per cent of the child population in Pakistan still remains non-immunised, leading to child mortality. She said that World Pneumonia Day is an occasion that can be used as a platform to impart and share knowledge for the fight against the deadly disease.

Speaking about symptoms amongst children, Dr Mehnaz said they may vary, depending on the type of pathogen. The most common symptoms include rapid or difficult breathing, cough, fever, chills, headaches, loss of appetite and wheezing. Children under five with severe cases of pneumonia may struggle to breathe with their chests moving in or retracting during inhalation. Young infants may suffer from convulsions, unconsciousness, hypothermia, lethargy and feeding problem, she briefed.



Dr Jalal Akbar, a professor of paediatrics at Baqai University and PPA Karachi chapter president, stressed on the early treatment of pneumonia and said that it kills more children than Aids, malaria and measles altogether.

He said that pneumonia accounts for 18 per cent of the total child deaths, making it the leading killer of children below five years of age. Pneumonia accounts for more than 1.3 million deaths among children below five years of age, he added.

Pneumonia is most prevalent in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa, he said, adding that in every 30 seconds, pneumonia claims an innocent child's life. Each year, there are more than 150 million cases of pneumonia in young children in developing countries, he said.

The paediatricians said that parents should take their children to the nearest EPI centres for vaccination, which is free of charge.

Dr Saleem Paryani, a senior paediatrician and PPA Sindh general secretary, emphasised that parents should play their part in controlling and eliminating life-threatening infectious diseases and said that vaccines are one of the most cost-effective health investments. "It plays a major role in eliminating and preventing diseases and, every year, approximately three million deaths are prevented and 750,000 children are saved from disability [through vaccines]," he said. "Vaccines are considered second only to clean drinking water in reducing infectious diseases."

Published in The Express Tribune, November 11^th, 2015.