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Every minute, a kid dies of pneumonia
Nirmala M Nagaraj, TNN 2 November 2009, 02:26am IST|
BANGALORE: India looks indeed like a leading Third World country: malnourished children breathe polluted air and suffer from lack of nutrition and
hygiene. It leads the world with 27% of the global pneumonia cases. Worse, every minute, a child dies of pneumonia in India, followed by Afghanistan, China, Pakistan and Bangladesh.
Annually, two million children under five die from it, and pneumonia contributes to almost 20% of childhood mortality cases ? more than AIDS, measles and malaria combined. So says WHO data published in the Lancet Journal in Sept.
WHAT CAUSES PNEUMONIA?
In India, the main culprit is malnourishment ? here, 47% of the paediatric population suffers from low immune systems.
?Lack of good nutrition, polluted air and poor hygiene are the main causes of pneumonia. Premature babies are at higher risk, so by improving maternal nutrition, low-birth premature babies can be prevented and by tackling malnourishment, improving immune system and controlling air pollution, pneumonia can be prevented. Better access to antibiotics can control mortality due to the disease,? said Dr H Paramesh, national president for respiratory disease chapter of the Indian Academy of Paediatrics.
Environmental factors have increased a child?s susceptibility, especially among in homes, exposed to pollution caused by using biomass fuels for cooking and parental smoking habits. India accounts for 40% of worldwide childhood pneumonia cases, and among children who survive Hib meningitis, 30% suffer from disabilities.
Nirmala M Nagaraj, TNN 2 November 2009, 02:26am IST|
BANGALORE: India looks indeed like a leading Third World country: malnourished children breathe polluted air and suffer from lack of nutrition and
hygiene. It leads the world with 27% of the global pneumonia cases. Worse, every minute, a child dies of pneumonia in India, followed by Afghanistan, China, Pakistan and Bangladesh.
Annually, two million children under five die from it, and pneumonia contributes to almost 20% of childhood mortality cases ? more than AIDS, measles and malaria combined. So says WHO data published in the Lancet Journal in Sept.
WHAT CAUSES PNEUMONIA?
In India, the main culprit is malnourishment ? here, 47% of the paediatric population suffers from low immune systems.
?Lack of good nutrition, polluted air and poor hygiene are the main causes of pneumonia. Premature babies are at higher risk, so by improving maternal nutrition, low-birth premature babies can be prevented and by tackling malnourishment, improving immune system and controlling air pollution, pneumonia can be prevented. Better access to antibiotics can control mortality due to the disease,? said Dr H Paramesh, national president for respiratory disease chapter of the Indian Academy of Paediatrics.
Environmental factors have increased a child?s susceptibility, especially among in homes, exposed to pollution caused by using biomass fuels for cooking and parental smoking habits. India accounts for 40% of worldwide childhood pneumonia cases, and among children who survive Hib meningitis, 30% suffer from disabilities.
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