January 30, 2020

Andrew Campbell 

The Global Forum on Childhood Pneumonia was held for the first time from January 29 to 31 in Barcelona of Spain. The first international forum on childhood pneumonia had discussions on a more affordable pneumonia vaccine and political commitments from countries to develop national strategies to stop pneumonia deaths. Meanwhile, on January 28, the article “Childhood pneumonia: Everything you need to know” was released by UNICEF to emphasize pneumonia kills more children than any other infectious disease in the world. We can find a child dying from pneumonia every 39 seconds.

In general, immune systems are immature in children who become more vulnerable to pneumonia infection of the lungs. UNICEF claimed pneumonia killed more than 800,000 children under 5 years old, including 153,000 newborn babies every year. UNICEF suggested that pneumonia could be prevented beforehand by adequate nutrition and by reducing air pollution and kept good hygiene practices like handwashing with soap.

Unfortunately, UNICEF reported 71 million children worldwide failed to receive proper vaccine treatment of the recommended 3 doses to prevent pneumonia in 2018. Congo, Ethiopia, India, Nigeria, and Pakistan accounted for more than half of all death tolls due to pneumonia among children aged under 5. Therefore, UNICEF called for stepped-up efforts in urgent global action of prevention and treatment to combat these preventable deaths in childhood pneumonia.

Photo:Webshot.