Unicef warns pneumonia can kill

Transcript

Unicef says pneumonia is still one of the leading causes of death in babies and young children in the Pacific region and parents should be alert to rapid breathing, coughing and a fever.

The Chief of Health and Nutrition for UNICEF Pacific, Dr Naawa Siplinayambe, told Jenny Meyer childhood vaccinations, good hygiene and nutrition, can help protect children but parents should be aware of the three key signs of pneumonia and seek early treatment.

NAAWA SIPLINAYAMBE:Childhood pneumonia currently is one of the leading causes of death in children under five in the Pacific. So it is a significant contributor of deaths in children under five. The rate of progress however has changed from 1990 to 2012. So that we have a decrease of about 11 per cent.

JENNY MEYER: What should parents be alert for when it comes to signs and symptoms of pneumonia in young children?

NS:So in terms of signs and symptoms of pneumonia, it's really fast breathing and cough. This fast breathing will exhibit itself as like a child who is a little bit out of breath. But at the same time the child might also have a fever. So you'd have the fast breathing, the cough and also the fever. So if you have these three symptoms you need to make sure that the child accesses a health provider within 24 hours minimum. The reason why we say 24 hours is because after that time the child can easily go into severe pneumonia which is more difficult to treat and it can also cause additional long term complications.

JM: I guess for some people getting a baby or young child to a doctor is quite a difficult challenge. What can be done at the government level to try and tackle the problem of childhood pneumonia in babies and young children?

NS: Well one of the things that we've been advocating for countries is that first and foremost we need to have this early recognition of fever and early management. This is really through the integrated management of childhood illness. This is a very simple protocol that tries to identify fever and then try and manage that at the health facility level. The second issue of course is to make sure that treatments are made available. And these include antibiotics which are efficacious. Recently WHO has released a publication that provides guidelines to governments on which antibiotics to use and which ones are less efficacious. And thirdly is to try and develop some very simple advocacy messages. So I think the government has a critical role to play to ensure that these messages go across to the parents. What we are advocating particularly in some countries is that we go ahead and treat. We don't need to wait for the child to have an x-ray or any other radiological tests but we treat the child immediately.