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Pneumonia kills a child every 39 seconds, health agencies say

Published 12/11/2019, 01:01
Updated 12/11/2019, 01:09
© Reuters.

By Kate Kelland

LONDON, Nov 12 (Reuters) - Pneumonia killed more than

800,000 babies and young children last year - or one child every

39 seconds - despite being curable and mostly preventable,

global health agencies said on Tuesday.

In a report on what they described as a "forgotten

epidemic", the United Nations children's fund UNICEF, the

international charity Save The Children and four other health

agencies urged governments to step up investment in vaccines to

prevent the disease and in health services and medicines to

treat it.

"The fact that this preventable, treatable and easily

diagnosed disease is still the world's biggest killer of young

children is frankly shocking," said Seth Berkley, chief

executive of the GAVI vaccines alliance.

Pneumonia is a lung disease that can be caused by bacteria,

viruses or fungi. Its victims have to fight for breath as their

lungs fill with pus and fluid.

It can be prevented with vaccines, and treated with

antibiotics and - in severe cases - with oxygen, but in poorer

countries, access to these is often limited.

Nigeria, India, Pakistan, the Democratic Republic of Congo

and Ethiopia accounted for more than half the children who died

of pneumonia last year - most of them babies who had not reached

their second birthday.

"Millions of children are dying for want of vaccines,

affordable antibiotics and routine oxygen treatment," said Kevin

Watkins, chief executive of Save the Children. "This is a

forgotten global epidemic that demands an urgent international

response."

The report said pneumonia causes 15% of deaths in under-5s,

but accounts for only 3% of spending on research into infectious

diseases, lagging far behind other diseases such as malaria.

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