kiwibird
Editor, Senior Moderator
177, 000 Children Die Of Pneumonia Annually ?Expert
By Kemi Yesufu, Correspondent, Abuja
One hundred and seventy seven thousand (177,000) children under the age of five die from pneumonia in Nigeria annually.
Director, Alliances and Information at the International Vaccine Access Centre of the John Hopkins University Baltimore, USA, Lois Privor-Dumm, disclosed this known at a press conference held in Abuja on Friday. She described the situation as unacceptable, while blamed the high number of deaths recorded on the poor vaccine coverage of the disease in the country. Privor-Dumm decried a situation whereby preventable and treatable disease such as pneumonia kills Nigerian children in thousands.
Though she commended Federal Government through which the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHDA) is sourcing for an enlarged supply of the pneumonia (Hib) vaccine, she argued that with 500 children killed by the disease on daily basis government must intensify its efforts in this regard.
?The World Bank, UNICEF, WHO, NPHDA and GAVI Alliance are all working towards making the vaccine available for routine immunisation. But we must tell the world that we need the vaccines now, we must make sure the vaccines reach children because a child being in the rural or urban area should not be a determinant to his receiving the vaccine,? she said.
Privor-Dumm called on religious leaders, community leaders and traditional rulers to assist government in enlightening caregivers on the danger of pneumonia and the options of treatment available.
Also, wife of Bayelsa State Governor, Alayingi Sylva, stressed the need for intervention programmes on pneumonia to be directed at the grass roots.
http://www.independentngonline.com/DailyIndependent/Article.aspx?id=15594
By Kemi Yesufu, Correspondent, Abuja
One hundred and seventy seven thousand (177,000) children under the age of five die from pneumonia in Nigeria annually.
Director, Alliances and Information at the International Vaccine Access Centre of the John Hopkins University Baltimore, USA, Lois Privor-Dumm, disclosed this known at a press conference held in Abuja on Friday. She described the situation as unacceptable, while blamed the high number of deaths recorded on the poor vaccine coverage of the disease in the country. Privor-Dumm decried a situation whereby preventable and treatable disease such as pneumonia kills Nigerian children in thousands.
Though she commended Federal Government through which the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHDA) is sourcing for an enlarged supply of the pneumonia (Hib) vaccine, she argued that with 500 children killed by the disease on daily basis government must intensify its efforts in this regard.
?The World Bank, UNICEF, WHO, NPHDA and GAVI Alliance are all working towards making the vaccine available for routine immunisation. But we must tell the world that we need the vaccines now, we must make sure the vaccines reach children because a child being in the rural or urban area should not be a determinant to his receiving the vaccine,? she said.
Privor-Dumm called on religious leaders, community leaders and traditional rulers to assist government in enlightening caregivers on the danger of pneumonia and the options of treatment available.
Also, wife of Bayelsa State Governor, Alayingi Sylva, stressed the need for intervention programmes on pneumonia to be directed at the grass roots.
http://www.independentngonline.com/DailyIndependent/Article.aspx?id=15594