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UNITED NATIONS, Nov.12 (Xinhua) – A new analysis report released Thursday shows that severe pneumonia leaves an estimated 4.2 million children under the age of five in 124 low- and middle-income countries with critically low oxygen levels each. year.
Joint analysis by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI), Save the Children, and the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute (MCRI) says that disruptions to health services related to The COVID-19 pandemic “threatens to be a new blow” in the battle against the world’s largest infectious killer of children, which already kills more than 800,000 children under the age of five each year.
Pneumonia is caused by bacteria, viruses, or fungi, and it leaves children struggling to breathe as their lungs fill with pus and fluid. Severe pneumonia affects more than 22 million young children in low- and middle-income countries each year and kills more people than malaria, measles, and diarrhea combined.
“COVID-19 has infected millions of people and made difficult global conditions for children even worse,” said UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore. “As the world grapples with the pandemic and the dire consequences it poses for the most vulnerable, we must not lose sight of the fact that pneumonia continues to claim the lives of more than 2,000 young people every day. Medical oxygen can help save some of these lives. “
Kevin Watkins, Executive Director of Save the Children UK, said: “The pandemic has exposed a devastating shortage of oxygen in the poorest countries. Every year millions of children arrive at health centers in developing countries that they need oxygen. In much of Africa, fewer than one in five get the treatment they need. Many die of exhaustion – their fragile bodies lack the oxygen they need to recover. “
Iain Barton, CHAI CEO, said: “Helping countries establish resilient systems to deliver oxygen reliably and efficiently will save lives during this pandemic and treat patients sustainably in the future.”
In a comment published in The Lancet on World Pneumonia Day, which falls on November 12, global health agencies, including Save the Children and UNICEF, call on governments and donors to take advantage of the investment and efforts made. to respond to COVID-19 to strengthen health. systems that can fight childhood pneumonia.
World Pneumonia Day was established by the Stop Pneumonia Initiative in 2009 to raise awareness of the number of victims of pneumonia, one of the leading causes of death for children worldwide, and advocate for global action to protect, help prevent and effectively treat this deadly disease. Final product
