Health experts for protecting children from carrying pneumonia

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ISLAMABAD, Jan 28 (APP): Health experts on Tuesday advised parents to take extra preventive measures to protect their children from carrying pneumonia in wake of prevailing high risk season.

According to them, parents should immediately consult the doctor if they observe symptoms of disease in children like cough or difficult breathing, with or without fever.

Medical expert at Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) Dr Wasim Khawaja said pneumonia was diagnosed with the presence of either fast breathing or lower chest wall indrawing where their chest moves in or retracts during inhalation while wheezing is more common in viral infections.

He added that very severely ill infants may be unable to feed or drink and may also experience unconsciousness, hypothermia and convulsions.

He said pneumonia could be caused by viruses, bacteria, or fungi while it could be prevented by immunization, adequate nutrition, and by addressing environmental factors.

He said pneumonia caused by bacteria could be treated with antibiotics, but only one third of children with pneumonia receive the antibiotics they need.

He said pneumonia was a form of acute respiratory infection that affects the lungs. He added that lungs were made up of small sacs called alveoli, which fill with air when a healthy person breathes. When an individual had pneumonia, the alveoli were filled with pus and fluid, which makes breathing painful and limits oxygen intake.

Dr Sharif Astori from Federal Government Polyclinic (FGPC) hospital said pneumonia could spread in a number of ways. The viruses and bacteria that were commonly found in a child’s nose or throat could infect the lungs if they were inhaled.

They may also spread via air-borne droplets from a cough or sneeze. In addition, pneumonia may spread through blood, especially during and shortly after birth, he added.

He said more research was needed to be done on the different pathogens causing pneumonia and the ways they were transmitted, as this was of critical importance for treatment and prevention.

He said children could also get this disease due to indoor air pollution caused by cooking and heating with biomass fuels like wood or dung, living in crowded homes and parental smoking.

He said features of viral and bacterial pneumonia were similar however, the symptoms of viral pneumonia may be more numerous than the symptoms of bacterial pneumonia.

According to World Health Organization (WHO) report, pneumonia was the single largest infectious cause of death in children worldwide affecting children and families everywhere, but was most prevalent in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.

It said addressing environmental factors such as indoor air pollution and encouraging good hygiene in crowded homes also reduces the number of children who fall ill with pneumonia.

It said that adequate nutrition was the key to improving children’s natural defences, starting with exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months of life. In addition to being effective in preventing pneumonia, it also helps to reduce the length of the illness if a child does become ill.

The WHO said preventing pneumonia in children was an essential component of a strategy to reduce child mortality. It added immunization against hib, pneumococcus, measles and whooping cough or pertussis is the most effective way to prevent pneumonia.

It added that Pneumonia should be treated with antibiotics. Most cases of pneumonia require oral antibiotics, which are often prescribed at a health centre and these cases can also be diagnosed and treated with inexpensive oral antibiotics at the community level by trained community health workers.

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