India accounts for one out of four child deaths frompneumonia across the world, where the disease claims 1.4 million children underfive years of age each year.
Meanwhile, pneumonia is the cause of one out of five deathsworldwide in the same age group, according to a report in a national paper.
The paper quotes Dr Rashmi Kapoor of India's Academy ofPaediatrics as saying that worldwide pneumonia kills more children below theage of five years than AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis combined. Meanwhile,India accounts for almost 25 percent of the world's pneumonia deaths ofchildren.
"Pneumonia accounts for 20 per cent deaths amongchildren below 5 years of age becoming the leading cause of death in the agegroup. According to the IAP records, annually, India witnesses 45 millionpneumonia cases among children below 5 years of which 0.37 million die due topneumonia," the paper quoted Kapoor as saying.
Experts say the government should introduce the pneumococcalconjugate vaccine (PCV), which immunises children against pneumonia and otherdiseases caused by streptococcus pneumoniae.
But the government also needs to address the issue ofmalnutrition and breast feeding for the first 6 months, timely immunisation andappropriate healthcare during delivery to reduce significantly mortality rates,the paper said.
Notably, breast feeding -- especially in the first daysafter birth -- provides many of the important antibodies humans need to fightoff disease. But in many Indiancommunities, early breast milk is considered to be "polluting," so itis extruded and thrown away. And poor families often eschew breast feeding infavor of substitutes such as cow's milk fortified with honey in the mistakenbelief that a weak woman's breast milk is not sufficient for the baby's health.
