The death of 162,000 Nigerian children, of pneumonia in 2018, is the highest of the estimated total of 802,000 pneumonia deaths globally, the Save the Children said this in Abuja.
The new report by the organisation revealed that globally, 802,000 children under the age of five died of pneumonia in 2018.
According to the report, Nigeria accounts for 162,000; India, 127,000; Pakistan, 58,000; Democratic Republic of Congo, 40,000 and Ethiopia, 32,000.
The Chief Executive Officer, Save the Children, Kevin Watkins, who released the report at a news conference as part of activities marking the World Pneumonia Day, described pneumonia as the world’s leading infectious killer of children under the age five.
He said yet, not so much attention was paid to the killer disease which he said could be prevented by vaccination.
He said the data obtained from the United Nations Inter-agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation 2019 and the Save the Children’s Child Inequality Tracker, indicated that the disease was a forgotten global health epidemic that demanded a greater international response as millions of children were dying for want of vaccines, affordable antibiotics and routine oxygen treatment.
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