The scourge called pneumonia
Saturday, 20 November 2010
CHILDREN are vulnerable to diseases more than adults because of their body’s under-developed defence system. Unless treated in right manner and in right time they die. In a developing country like Bangladesh, the most discussed disease is diarrhoea that claims lives of hundreds of thousands of children every year. And the government and the parents try to shield children from diseases such as tetanus, whooping cough, polio, measles and diphtheria through vaccination and the World Health Organization (WHO) and other international bodies extend financial and material support to them.
But not many people are aware of another deadly disease, pneumonia, which is taking a heavy toll on the children. Pneumonia, the respiratory disease that causes an inflammation of the lungs because of bacterial, viral and parasitic infections, snuffs out more children’s lives than HIV/ AID, measles and malaria put together. According WHO, an estimated 1.8 million children die of the disease globally every year. In Bangladesh, it was revealed at a function by the pediatricians in Dhaka on November 11 that pneumonia claimed an estimated 137 young lives everyday or 50,000 every year.
The pneumonic conditions, according to doctors, can be treated with antibiotics but a small number of children afflicted with the disease get the drugs they need. Malnutrition, widespread poverty, inadequate or lack of access to government health services, particularly in the rural areas where the majority of the poor live, are considered major reasons behind the death of a large number of children every year due to pneumonia. Besides, insufficient bacteriological diagnosis of pneumonia through blood, sputum and lung fluid culture and doctors’ preferences for prescribing drugs, irrespective of causative factors at times, prolong the suffering of the patients.
Pneumonia is among the major diseases that are responsible for death of a large number of Bangladesh children under five years of age. Yet enough attention is not given to make available the cure for it to the poor who can hardly afford the cost of treatment. The poor, in most cases, are unaware of the symptoms of the disease. Parents can easily identify symptoms of the disease which include rapid breathing or difficulty in breathing along with fever and cough. Besides, hospitalization of pneumonia patients is considered essential for constant monitoring. But the fact remains that most parents, coming from poorer sections of the society, out of ignorance of the symptoms assume the pneumonic infection as normal fever and go to quacks for treatment, resulting in fatalities.
Vaccines against pneumonia are available in developed countries. But those being expensive are not affordable by most people in poor developing countries. Yet then the government has its large health department and health education bureau. Those can well create awareness among the poor people living both in rural and urban areas about the disease and the symptoms and ensure the availability of the facilities at the public health centres at the upazila headquarters to carry out diagnostic tests for pneumonia and subsequent treatment. Unfortunately, the government has been failing in its task of providing minimum health facilities to the poor who need the same most. Policymakers do very often talk about improvement in health services at the grassroots. But that has not been taking place at the desired pace. The policymakers do need to find out the reasons without further delay.
But not many people are aware of another deadly disease, pneumonia, which is taking a heavy toll on the children. Pneumonia, the respiratory disease that causes an inflammation of the lungs because of bacterial, viral and parasitic infections, snuffs out more children’s lives than HIV/ AID, measles and malaria put together. According WHO, an estimated 1.8 million children die of the disease globally every year. In Bangladesh, it was revealed at a function by the pediatricians in Dhaka on November 11 that pneumonia claimed an estimated 137 young lives everyday or 50,000 every year.
The pneumonic conditions, according to doctors, can be treated with antibiotics but a small number of children afflicted with the disease get the drugs they need. Malnutrition, widespread poverty, inadequate or lack of access to government health services, particularly in the rural areas where the majority of the poor live, are considered major reasons behind the death of a large number of children every year due to pneumonia. Besides, insufficient bacteriological diagnosis of pneumonia through blood, sputum and lung fluid culture and doctors’ preferences for prescribing drugs, irrespective of causative factors at times, prolong the suffering of the patients.
Pneumonia is among the major diseases that are responsible for death of a large number of Bangladesh children under five years of age. Yet enough attention is not given to make available the cure for it to the poor who can hardly afford the cost of treatment. The poor, in most cases, are unaware of the symptoms of the disease. Parents can easily identify symptoms of the disease which include rapid breathing or difficulty in breathing along with fever and cough. Besides, hospitalization of pneumonia patients is considered essential for constant monitoring. But the fact remains that most parents, coming from poorer sections of the society, out of ignorance of the symptoms assume the pneumonic infection as normal fever and go to quacks for treatment, resulting in fatalities.
Vaccines against pneumonia are available in developed countries. But those being expensive are not affordable by most people in poor developing countries. Yet then the government has its large health department and health education bureau. Those can well create awareness among the poor people living both in rural and urban areas about the disease and the symptoms and ensure the availability of the facilities at the public health centres at the upazila headquarters to carry out diagnostic tests for pneumonia and subsequent treatment. Unfortunately, the government has been failing in its task of providing minimum health facilities to the poor who need the same most. Policymakers do very often talk about improvement in health services at the grassroots. But that has not been taking place at the desired pace. The policymakers do need to find out the reasons without further delay.