Each year 4.2 million children need oxygen due to severe pneumonia

JAKARTA – A new analytical report published on Thursday (12/11) shows severe pneumonia causes an estimated 4.2 million children under five to experience low oxygen levels each year. It is found in 124 low and middle income countries.

This was conveyed in a joint analysis of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI), Save the Children, and the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute (MCRI).

Pneumonia is the biggest killer infection of children in the world, which kills more than 800,000 children under five each year.

Pneumonia is caused by bacteria, viruses, or fungi, and makes it difficult for children to breathe when their lungs fill with pus and fluid. Each year, severe pneumonia affects more than 22 million children in low- and middle-income countries. The resulting death toll was also greater than the combined death toll from malaria, measles and diarrhea.

“We must not forget the fact that pneumonia is still claiming more than 2,000 young lives every day. Medical oxygen can help save some of them,” said UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore. Xinhua, Friday (13/11).

Save the Children UK CEO Kevin Watkins said the pandemic had left children with pneumonia deprived of oxygen, especially in poor countries.

Every year, millions of children come to health facilities in developing countries because they need oxygen assistance. In many parts of Africa, less than one in five people get the care they need. Many died from exhausted, fragile bodies deprived of the oxygen they needed to recover.

Meanwhile, CHAI CEO Iain Barton said, “Helping countries build resilient systems to provide oxygen reliably and efficiently will save lives during this pandemic as well as sustainably treat patients in the future.”

In comments published in the Lancet journal on World Pneumonia Day, which falls on November 12, several global health agencies including Save the Children and UNICEF are calling on governments and donors to build on investments and efforts to tackle COVID-19 to strengthen health systems that can cope. pneumonia in children.

World Pneumonia Day was established by the Stop Pneumonia Initiative in 2009 to raise awareness about the number of victims of pneumonia, the leading killer of children around the world. In addition, it is necessary to advocate for global action to protect, help prevent and effectively treat this deadly disease. (Yanurisa Ananta)

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