Islamabad: Every child, regardless of where they are born, deserves access to life saving vaccines and medicines. UNICEF, under the Integrated Global Action Plan for Prevention and Control of Pneumonia and Diarrhoea (GAPPD), recommends protecting, preventing and treating infections through proven interventions to improve the management of pneumonia, and to increase child survival.
Cris Munduate, deputy representative of UNICEF Pakistan shared these views here Monday while addressing a ceremony organised in collaboration with the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) and the Ministry of Health in connection with World Pneumonia Day.
“Around 1 million children globally die every year by pneumonia, the figure is even more than deaths caused by HIV/AIDS, malaria and measles,” Cris stated.
Dr. Atiya Aabroo, Deputy Director Programmes at the Ministry of National Health Services, said the government is cognisant of the importance of investing in health, which an underlying factor that defines the welfare of a country’s population. Aabroo added that 14 percent of the children under five years of age suffer from Acute Respiratory Infections (ARI), which can cause pneumonia, if not diagnosed and treated quickly.
Aabroo claimed that the Ministry of Health and the provincial health authorities are working in collaboration with UNICEF and with financial support from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to prevent, protect and treat cases of pneumonia among children under five. “Through this initiative, essential commodities have been provided in all districts in Sindh and five districts of Punjab along with strengthening of services for better diagnosis and treatment of pneumonia,” she added.
Speaking on the occasion, Dr. Haider Shirazi, Associate Professor Neonatology Department, at PIMS said “We, in Pakistan are losing around 250 children each day due to this deadly disease. We can protect our children by breastfeeding and immunization. Deaths due to pneumonia can be controlled by early treatment and referral.”
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