Dhaka, Nov 01 (bdnews24.com)– A coalition of Bangladesh health organisations joined together Sunday to mark the first annual World Pneumonia Day and urge the government to continue steps to fight pneumonia, the world's leading killer of young children.
Pneumonia takes the lives of 2 million children worldwide each year—more than measles, malaria, and AIDS combined –and accounts for 20 percent of all deaths of children under five years old.
Bangladesh has the fifth-highest rate of pneumonia in the world, with an estimated 6 million cases, and 50,000 deaths annually, among children under five.
While pneumonia affects children and families everywhere, it has the most deadly impact in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, where 98 percent of pneumonia deaths occur.
"Pneumonia takes a devastating toll in Bangladesh, despite the fact that it is the most solvable problem in global health," said Dr. Samir Saha, Executive Director of the Child Health Research Foundation and head of microbiology Dhaka Shishu Hospital in Bangladesh.
"We have the tools to protect and prevent children from catching pneumonia, and to treat those suffering with this illness. Today, we join together to urge out leaders to make these interventions a priority in Bangladesh. Prevention of pneumonia and pneumonia deaths can help bring equity for child health in developing countries."
Bangladesh child health advocates have convened a press conference, rally, scientific symposium and policymaker roundtable in Dhaka, from Nov 1-2, to engage the scientific, medical and child advocacy communities in the fight against pneumonia and to urge government leaders to continue progress on prevention.
"The fight against pneumonia can be won," said Dr. Desmond Turner, Member of the British Parliament and Chair of the UK's All-Party Parliamentary Group on Pneumococcal Disease Prevention in the Developing World.
"I urge governments throughout the developing world to increase their commitment to treating and implementing vaccines to prevent this deadly disease. Developing country leaders now have the opportunity to implement this vaccine in their countries where they are desperately needed."
Treatment, prevention
Studies show that implementing pneumonia prevention and treatment interventions worldwide could save an estimated one million lives each year and significantly reduce the burden of families and communities that must cope with pneumonia-related illnesses and deaths.
Pneumonia can be treated effectively with antibiotics that cost less than a dollar, but less than 20 percent of children with pneumonia receive the antibiotics they need, according to WHO.
Bangladesh has already taken steps to prevent against Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib) – one of the two major causes of pneumonia by including Hib vaccines in their national immunisation programme.
In September this year, parliament decided to apply for pneumococcal conjugate vaccine funding through GAVI. This gives great hope that Bangladesh will utilise safe effective vaccines to prevent pneumonia.
Professor M. R. Khan, National Professor of Paediatrics in Bangladesh, stated, "Our country is in the process of eradicating polio, measles, tetanus and other deadly diseases. Similarly, immunisation with pneumococcal vaccine can largely prevent pneumonia and save the children of Bangladesh."
As the result of collaborative efforts by WHO, UNICEF, the GAVI Alliance, academia, foundations, industry and donor and developing country governments, low-income countries can now access existing and future pneumococcal vaccines with a small self-financed contribution of as little as $0.15 per dose.
To date, 15 countries have received GAVI Alliance approval for support to introduce pneumococcal vaccine.
A Global Effort
Activities taking place in Bangladesh are part of a global movement taking place around the world to commemorate the first annual World Pneumonia Day on Nov 2, 2009.
Nearly 100 leading global health organisations from six continents joined forces to recognise the first-annual World Pneumonia Day and call upon governments worldwide to take steps to fight pneumonia.
As part of the effort, the WHO and UNICEF released the Global Action Plan for the Prevention and Control of Pneumonia, a six-year plan for the worldwide scale-up of a comprehensive set of interventions to control the disease.
To learn more about World Pneumonia Day and the Global Coalition against Child Pneumonia, visit http://worldpneumoniaday.org.
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