Andhra Pradesh: Timely action can curb Pneumonia

Vijayawada: “Prevention is better than a cure for pneumonia,” say doctors, who attended a conference on Saturday conducted by the IAP (The Indian Academy of Paediatrics) on the occasion of ‘World Pneumonia Day’. They suggested that mothers breastfeeding for up to six months and vaccinations were better solutions to control the scourge of pneumonia.

Experts from the AP State chapter of the Indian Academy of Pediatrics stress the importance of preventing pneumonia, one of the leading causes of death amongst children under 5 years of age in the country. The experts fully endorsed the Indian government’s decision to include PCV (pneumococcal conjugate vaccine) in the country’s UIP (Universal Immunization Programme) as they believe it will be of great help in India. Dr. Chalasani Mallikarjuna Rao, Secretary, IAP Andhra Pradesh, said “Pneumonia should not be allowed to take as many lives as it does, because we now have vaccines that can help protect millions of children from this life-threatening disease. 

“More than 140 countries in the world have introduced the PCV (pneumococcal conjugate vaccine) in their immunisation programmes. “India recently made this decision and it will definitely help us achieve our goal of 90 per cent immunisation coverage by the year 2018.” The ‘streptococcus’ pneumoniae bacteria that causes ‘pneumococcal pneumonia’ is responsible for about one-third of all pneumonia deaths, globally and in India.   

According to a study published in 2015, there were an estimated 5,64,200 cases of ‘pneumococcal pneumonia’ in children under the age of 5 in India, with 23,000 in Andhra Pradesh. “Although death of those under the age of 5 has reduced significantly since 2011, we still have the unfortunate tag of having the largest number of deaths in 2016 when compared to any other country worldwide.  

“Now, with the inclusion of the pneumococcal conjugate vaccine in India’s UIP, we hope we can change this and come close to meeting the Sustainable Development Goal of reducing the under-5 mortality in India,” said Dr. Y Guru Prasad, President, IAP, Andhra Pradesh. Under the UIP, the pneumococcal conjugate vaccine has been introduced to cover approximately 21 lakh children in the first year, in select states, with the support of GAVI (Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation). 

In recent years, the IAP has focused on ways to educate parents about the disease, increase community awareness of healthy practices and reduce its risk and empower community health workers to recognize and report possible cases of pneumonia. Dr. Anil Kumar, Treasurer, IAP, and Dr. Venkateswara Rao, previous President, IAP, also presented their observations, and gameplan to control  pneumon