World Pneumonia day observed

Islamabad

World Pneumonia day observed across the globe including Pakistan on Saturday to raise awareness of pneumonia promote prevention and treatment and generate action to fight the illness.

Different public and private health departments had organised seminars, conferences, discussion programmes and awareness campaigns to highlight this year’s theme of World Pneumonia Day.

News messages and events promoting World Pneumonia Day had publicised and made viral through social media networks online print and broadcast media and word of mouth.

People asked to help fight the disease by participating in education programs voluntary work or contributing via donations.

Pneumonia is a form of acute respiratory infection that affects the lungs making breathing painful and limiting oxygen intake. Pneumonia is the biggest killer of children under age 5worldwide. Nearly one in five global child deaths result from pneumonia every year. Moreover, this is a preventable and treatable illness via vaccines antibiotic treatment and improved sanitation.

The United Nations (UN) first celebrated the day on November12, 2009. The WHO and Unicef integrated Global action plan for pneumonia and diarrhoea (GAPPD) aims to accelerate pneumonia control with a combination of interventions to protect prevent and treat pneumonia in children with actions to protect children from pneumonia including promoting exclusive breastfeeding and adequate complementary feeding prevent pneumonia with vaccinations, hand washing with soap and  reducing household air pollution.

Treatment of pneumonia focusing on making sure that every sick child has access to the right kind of care either from a community based health worker or in a health facility.

A number of countries including Bangladesh, India, Kenya, Uganda and Zambia have developed district state and national plans to intensify actions for the control of pneumonia and diarrhoea.

Many more have integrated diarrhoea and pneumonia specification into their national child health and child survival strategies.  For many countries the post Millennium Development Goals agenda has explicitly included ending preventable diarrhoea and pneumonia deaths as a priority action.