Pneumonia Is Set To Kill Over 1.7 Million Children In India & 11 Million Globally By 2030
Just a couple days ago the International Vaccine Access Centre (IVAC) at the John Hopkins Bloomberg School or Public Health put report stating that Indian continues to top the list of 15 countries with the highest burden of pneumonia and diarrhoea child deaths in the world under the age of 5, with 1,58,176 due to pneumonia and 1,02,813 due to diarrhoea in 2016.
The latest report states that nearly 11 million children under the age of 5 will reportedly succumb to pneumonia by 2030.
Despite being easily treatable more than 1.7 million children are likely to die in India by 2030. India lost 2.6 lakh under the age of 5 in 2016 due to pneumonia and diarrhoea.
While in the developed world the severe lung infection mainly affects the elderly, in developing nations it is children who bear the brunt, with hundreds of thousands dying each year from the easily preventable disease.
The report also shows that more than four million of these deaths—over a third—could be easily averted with concerted action to improve rates of vaccination, treatment and nutrition.
Here’s what else the report revealed:
-Nigeria, India, Pakistan and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) are likely to bear the highest burden of deaths, according to the report by UK-based non-profit Save the Children.
-A handful of countries are set to carry the highest burdens, with 1.7 million children set to die in Nigeria and India, 700,000 in Pakistan and 635,000 in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
-As many 880,000 children, mostly under the age of two, died from the disease in 2016, the most recent year for which full data is available.
There is some good news, however.
The study, published on World Pneumonia Day, found that scaling up existing vaccination coverage, coupled with cheap antibiotics and ensuring good nutrition for children could save a total of 4.1 million lives.
"It beggars belief that close to a million children are dying every year from a disease that we have the knowledge and resources to defeat," said Save the Children CEO Kevin Watkins.
"There are no pink ribbons, global summits or marches for pneumonia. But anyone who cares about justice for children and their access to essential healthcare, this forgotten killer should be the defining cause of our age."
Pneumonia, an inflammatory infection of the lungs that may be contracted via viral or bacteria infection, is treatable if caught early enough and the patient's immune system isn't compromised.
But worldwide it hits young children who are often weak through malnutrition, killing more infants each year than malaria, diarrhoea and measles combined.