8,00,000 Children Die Annually From Pneumonia

Every year, World Pneumonia Day is marked on 12 November to raise awareness about the deadly respiratory infection. According to United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), a child dies from the disease every 39 seconds.

About 8,00,000 children below the age of five years die due to pneumonia annually in the country. Adults over the age of 65 years are also more at risk of contracting the disease.

Recent data from World Health Organization shows that pneumonia is the single largest infectious cause of death in children worldwide.

The disease killed 740, 180 children under the age of 5 in 2019, accounting for 14% of all deaths of children under five years old but 22% of all deaths in children aged 1 to 5.

According to the Ministry’s Preventive and Promotive Health Services Director Andrew Mulwa, 9,000 children died in 2018 as a result of pneumonia in Kenya.

“The world pneumonia day reminds us of the effort the government has put in place to address pneumonia which is a leading killer in under five contributing to deaths of around 9000 under-fives in 2018,” Mulwa said.

Mr. Mulwa has, however, commended the Kenyan government for making an effort to mitigate child deaths by putting interventions in place to ensure the improved outcome in under 5 outcomes including the increased uptake of ORS and zinc for management of diarrhea for children under five years.

He went ahead to urge all mothers that have been practicing safe breastfeeding to continue doing so adding that the prevention of Pneumonia is not hard or costly, also coordination between the county and national government will help greatly in defeating the disease.

“The good news is that a majority of these solutions are low cost but have a high impact that can be practiced at every level of care,” he said.

He called for the two levels of governance to pull their resources in a bid to provide better health care for the Kenyan citizens.

Pneumonia affects children and families everywhere, but deaths are highest in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. Children can be protected from pneumonia, it can be prevented by washing your hands frequently in warm, soapy water or just an alcohol-based hand sanitizer.

Prevention of Pneumonia

1. Practice good hygiene
2. Eat a healthy diet with lots of vegetables, fruits, lean protein,
3. Avoid smoking as well excessive consumption of alcohol
4. Keep babies and children away from people who are suffering from the flu to manage their chances of contracting the disease
5. Keep your children’s noses clean and teach them to sneeze and cough into their elbow to minimize the risk of spreading germs to others
6. People at greater risk of contracting pneumonia can also avail the pneumococcal vaccine against lung infections.