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The World Health Organization (WHO) warns that Pneumonia is the leading cause of child mortality worldwide

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  • The World Health Organization (WHO) warns that Pneumonia is the leading cause of child mortality worldwide


    Spanish-English translation

    FIRST CAUSE OF INFANT MORTALITY
    Only 30% of children have received antibiotics pneumonia requires

    Photo: Antena 3/AMREF
    MADRID, Sept. 10 (AFP) -

    The World Health Organization (WHO) warns that Pneumonia is the leading cause of child mortality worldwide, above all other diseases like AIDS or the malarial, partly because only 30 percent of affected children is treated with antibiotics they need.

    Specifically, as has posted this UN body, the acute respiratory infection that affects the lungs kills each year about 1.4 million children under five years, representing 18 percent of all deaths of children under five worldwide.

    The most common symptoms are rapid or difficult breathing, cough, fever, chills, loss of appetite or wheezing (more common in viral infections). But in cases of severe pneumonia, children may develop depression or retraction of the lower chest during inspiration (in a healthy person, the chest expands during inspiration).

    Furthermore, very sick infants can cause disease inability to consume food or liquids and unconsciousness, hypothermia and convulsions.

    While most healthy children can fight the infection by its natural defenses, WHO notes that immunocompromised children are at increased risk of pneumonia because their immune system can be weakened by malnutrition or undernourishment, especially in infants who are not exclusively breastfed breastfed.

    The previous presence of diseases like measles or asymptomatic HIV infection also increases the risk that a child will develop pneumonia. In addition, environmental factors such as air pollution, overcrowding or snuff consumption of parents also increase children's susceptibility to pneumonia.

    Therefore, the WHO points to different initiatives to prevent the disease or at least reduce mortality rates, starting with an immunization against Hib, pneumococcus, measles and whooping cough.

    Also, proper nutrition is key to improving the child's natural defenses, starting with exclusive breast-feeding for the first six months of life and that in addition to effectively prevent pneumonia, reduce the duration of illness.

    Can also reduce the number of children who get pneumonia correcting environmental factors such as indoor air pollution, such as providing clean indoor kitchens at affordable prices, and encouraging good hygiene in crowded homes.

    ECONOMIC COST

    Research has determined that adequate prevention and treatment of pneumonia can prevent one million child deaths a year. In fact, only through proper treatment can be prevented 600,000 deaths a year, according to WHO.

    The estimated cost of treating with antibiotics for all children with pneumonia in the 42 poorest countries in the world is about 600 million dollars (about 469 million euros). Treat pneumonia in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia - which produce 85% of all deaths - would cost a third of this amount, approximately $ 200 million (about 156 million euros).

    In this figure, the WHO has detailed, would include the cost of the antibiotics themselves and training of health professionals, which strengthens health systems as a whole.
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