Health
SAVE the Children International (SCI), Nigeria, has called on the Nigerian Government and Partners to champion the fight against childhood pneumonia, the largest infectious killer disease of children under the age of five years.
Mr Famari Barro, Country Director, SCI, Nigeria, made the call in a statement on Monday in Abuja, as the world commemorates the 2022 World Pneumonia Day.
Barrow said SCI noted that globally, at least one child under five dies every 45 seconds from pneumonia.
According to him, the organisation says that more than 700,000 children die every year in spite of the fact that pneumonia is a largely preventable and treatable disease.
“Half of the children around the world are not fully protected from pneumonia with the Pneumococcal (PCV) vaccine.
“Almost a third of all pneumonia deaths across the globe are caused by air pollution.
“The climate crisis is a child rights crisis and poses a serious threat to children’s health and well-being.
“The theme for this year’s World Pneumonia Day, ‘championing the fight to stop pneumonia’, reminds us that urgent action is needed to protect the 700,000 children who are denied the chance to reach their fifth birthday every year.”
Barrow said that almost all those deaths are preventable through vaccination, adequate nutrition, access to handwashing and basic health services, including access to oxygen treatment at the primary healthcare level.
He, however, said that thousands of children are unable to access the essential health services and treatments, which could tackle pneumonia and save their lives.
He said that although the Nigerian government of Nigeria, through the Federal Ministry of Health, has demonstrated its commitment towards ending child death from pneumonia, they need to sustain the momentum.
Barrow said the National Pneumonia Control Strategy and Implementation Plan, inaugurated by the Ministry of Health in 2020, requires budgetary allocations in order to ensure its full implementation.
He said that with pneumonia accounting for 20 per cent of under-five deaths in Nigeria, reducing pneumonia deaths would put Nigeria on track towards achieving Sustainable Development Goal 3 (SDG 3) by 2030.
He said that currently, Nigeria is still below 50 per cent of the required rate for SDG3.
“Our flagship INSPIRING project through our partnership with GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) has been at the forefront of the fight against pneumonia in Nigeria.
“The fight must continue, and government must continue to champion this fight to protect thousands of children who die every year from this killer disease.”
According to Barrow, pneumonia can be treated if sick children have access to timely care and treatment.
He said sadly, for many children and their families, access to timely essential and life-saving treatments such as oxygen and antibiotics remained the difference between life and death.
Dr Adamu Isah, Chief of Party, INSPIRING Project, Save the Children International, Nigeria, said, “evidence from our interventions in Jigawa and Lagos states confirmed that we know the tools to confront pneumonia and end child deaths.
“We have improved the skills of healthcare providers to better detect and treat children with pneumonia and donated high-quality and needed equipment and instruments to health facilities for improved quality of care.”
Isah said as a matter of urgency and importance, SCI is calling on the federal, state and local governments and partners to prioritise equitable access to primary healthcare.
He said these included prevention through immunization, prevention and treatment of wasting, and diagnosis and treatment of common causes of illness and death for every child.
He also urged them to keep up the momentum of investing in uninterrupted and sustainable access to oxygen in all healthcare facilities in Nigeria.
He tasked them to strengthen essential health and nutrition services and make the needed investment in primary healthcare, inclusive of community-based primary healthcare, to prevent thousands of children from dying from pneumonia and other preventable causes.
He said there is the need to prioritise, introduce and scale up access to pneumonia-fighting vaccines such as PCV for all children, especially targeting children suffering from or at risk of severe acute malnutrition and zero-dose children.
Isah said SCI also called for the need to prioritise the prevention and treatment of severe acute malnutrition and ensure sustainable and adequate funding for nutrition to accelerate a reduction of child deaths from pneumonia.
“Now is the time for Federal, State and Local Governments to take deliberate steps to leverage COVID-19 oxygen investments and ongoing funding opportunities to keep up the momentum to improve basic oxygen access and use so no child is left fighting for breath.” (NAN)
A.I
Tags: Dr Adamu Isah INSPIRING Project Mr Famari Barro Save the Children International World Pneumonia Day
