Pneumonia is one of the leading causes of death among children under 5 years of age in the country.
Every hour, around three children die of pneumonia in Bangladesh. This disease kills some 67 children every day and 24,300 children every year.
Experts opined that the prevention of this disease is not deemed to be as important as it should be, reports Bangla Tribune.
The information was presented at a view exchange meeting between the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (icddr,b) and the Bangladesh Health Reporters’ Forum on Wednesday. Research for Decision Makers and Data for Impact organized the program to mark the World Pneumonia Day (Thursday, November 12).
Addressing the meeting, Kamrun Nahar, the research head of icddr,b’s maternal and neonatal health department, said: “The health sector has improved a lot in the last two decades. Despite the progress in reduction of child mortality, pneumonia kills around 24,300 children under the age of five each year.”
Ahmed Ehsanur Rahman, an associate scientist at icddr,b’s maternal and neonatal health department, said in the keynote address: “In 2011, 11.7 out of every 1,000 live births under the age of five in the country died of pneumonia. Now that number is 8.1.”
“But according to the global target, the number of deaths per 1,000 live births should be reduced to three by 2025,” he added.
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Ehsanur continued: “Of the children who die of pneumonia in the country, 52% die at home; they do not receive any kind of treatment. Meanwhile, 3% of children die at home despite receiving medical treatment. About 45% of children die of pneumonia even after being taken to the hospital or a health centre.”
This is why children with symptoms of pneumonia must not be kept at home, the scientist commented.
“Children with pneumonia are more likely to die from hypoxemia (lack of oxygen in the blood), even more so amid the Covid-19 pandemic. Children with oxygen deficiency have a higher mortality rate from pneumonia. So it is important to keep pulse oximeters at every health centre,” he said.
Ehsanur further said: “The World Health Organization (WHO) has instructed hospitals to ensure 10 things to reduce deaths from pneumonia. But in 2017, it was found that district hospitals in Bangladesh follow only 5% of those 10 things.”
Prevention
Pneumonia is the leading cause of death among five-year-olds in the country, said Dhaka Children Hospital’s Prof Ruhul Amin, adding: “The best way to prevent this is to only breastfeed a child for the first six months after birth. From six months onwards, they should be fed home-made food alongside breast milk.”
Mentioning environmental pollution as one of the leading causes of pneumonia, he said: "It is very important to bring it under control. At the same time, if there are symptoms of pneumonia, the child should be taken to the health centre instead of being kept at home.
Death can be prevented if the child is initially given pneumonia medication”, the paediatric pneumonia specialist said.
Dr Md Jobayer Chishti, senior scientist at icddr,b’s Nutrition and Clinical Services Division, remarked that steps should be taken to prevent pneumonia instead of preventing deaths due to pneumonia.
“Children who suffer from malnutrition have a 20% higher risk of dying of pneumonia than children who do not suffer from malnutrition. And in our country, parents are conscious about diarrhoea, but not about pneumonia,” he said.