WORLD PNEUMONIA DAY: Every breath counts: stop pneumonia in its tracks

World Pneumonia Day is internationally marked on November 12 of every year, in order to raise awareness and advocacy, as well as give visibility to pneumonia, as the world’s leading infectious killer across all age groups, particularly in children and the elderly; it is also a major pandemic threat.

With an annual morbidity burden of over 156 million new cases of community acquired pneumonia (CAP) in under-fives, pneumonia remains the single most important current threat to child survival worldwide. In addition, CAP accounts for up to 1.6million (~18%) of the global 8.8million annual deaths in children under the age of 5 years.

So how do we ”stop pneumonia in its tracks”?

• Advocating for scaling up of vaccination of children with the pneumococcal and H. influenzae type b (Hib) vaccine, along with the regular vaccination program for measles, pertussis and tuberculosis, all of which have potential pneumonia complication;
• Ensuring early recognition and prompt treatment of children with pneumonia, even at primary care facility levels;
• Provision and periodic review of national antimicrobial policies to guide rational choice of specific treatment of children, as championed by PAN in the past few years;
• ⁠Promoting poverty alleviation measures, and encouraging healthy eating, in order to reduce the present level of childhood malnutrition, through ensuring school feeding, exclusive breastfeeding and dietary supplementation with essential micronutrients, like vitamin A and zinc in children
• ⁠Avoiding first, second or third hand cigarette smoking, as well as household exposure of children to biomass smoke combustion, especially from firewood stoves
• ⁠Educating the public about the dangers posed by pneumonia to child survival in Nigeria, its humongous contribution to underfive mortality, as well as its potential complications;
• Institution of appropriate treatment and preventive measures to reduce specific and underlying morbidities like Sickle cell anemia and HIV/AIDS, both of which constitute veritable risk factors of disease severity and fatal outcomes.

TOGETHER we can champion the fight to stop pneumonia!
#everybreathcounts
#stoppneumoniainitstracks
#paediatricassociationofnigeria