Experts in the health sector have called on the federal government and other stakeholders to improve efforts towards tackling the burden of pneumonia among children in the country.
They made the call during the commemoration of the World Pneumonia Day organised by Save the Children in Abuja on Wednesday.
According to statistics from Save the Children, pneumonia killed 140,520 Nigerian children under the age of five in 2016, indicating that more than 16 children died every hour.
The data also revealed that only 24% of children with pneumonia symptoms were taken to a health facility in 2017.
“Nineteen per 1,000 live births, under five mortality rate in Nigeria due to pneumonia in 2016. 19% of all under five mortality is due to pneumonia in 2016,” the organization said.
The Country Director, Save the Children Nigeria, Benjamin Foot, said promoting exclusive breast feeding among women would go a long way in tackling pneumonia.
He said there should be structures and systems in place so that pneumonia can be diagnosed early and treated.
He called on the federal government to increase investments in health and reduce vulnerability by promoting healthy nutrition, safe drinking water and sanitation as well as prompt care seeking behaviour.
The National chairman of the Nigeria Medical Association (NMA), who was represented by the Chairman, National Committee on Infectious Diseases of the association, Dr. Mustapha Makanta Yahaya, said Nigeria was one of the 15 countries responsible for 70% of global deaths attributable to pneumonia and diarrhea disease.
He said the country must prioritize pneumonia control and embrace new global initiatives that expand adequate preventive and case management of pneumonia at hospital, health facility, community and home levels in a continuum of care.
“The 2016/2017 National Immunization Coverage Survey (NCS) indicates that only 33% of children 12 to 23 months of age had three doses of Pentavalent vaccine against the global target of 90% . Forty percent do not receive any vaccines from the health system ,” he said.
He said the implication of this finding is that a large population of children particularly under-five are unprotected and are therefore at the risk of dying from vaccine preventable diseases.
“The statistics is unacceptable to us as Nigerian doctors, and we must reverse the trend. Effective case management at the community and health facility levels is also essential for pneumonia control,” he said.
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