Pneumonia without treatment can kill a child in a day or two. In Kenya, one of the worst countries affected by the disease, it claimed the lives of 22,473 people in 2015, almost all under the age of two.
Pneumonia kills two children under five every minute, or almost 1 million a year worldwide: more than malaria, diarrhoea and measles combined, according to Save the Children Yet it can be treated with antibiotics, such as amoxicillin, costing as little as 30p.
The report, Fighting for Breath, shows that fewer than 60% of health facilities in Kenya, Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Mauritania have amoxicillin available. In Uganda and Nepal, the figure falls to a quarter of facilities.
The nutrition situation in parts of Turkana, Kenya remains classified as “extremely critical”, and, in total, 3.4 million people are expected to be in need of emergency food aid by the end of 2017. Already, one child in every four in the country is malnourished, making them more susceptible to disease: a severely malnourished child is nine times more likely to die from pneumonia than one who is well-fed. Worse still, malnutrition makes it more difficult to treat.
“Pneumonia is the highest cause of morbidity and mortality here,” says Adrian Kituma, the paediatrician in Lodwar hospital, a 132-bed institution that serves the entire county. “Most are likely to have malnutrition and sometimes rickets and other diseases. But it is pneumonia that brings them to the ward.”
Pneumonia kills two children under five every minute, or almost 1 million a year worldwide: more than malaria, diarrhoea and measles combined, according to Save the Children Yet it can be treated with antibiotics, such as amoxicillin, costing as little as 30p.
The report, Fighting for Breath, shows that fewer than 60% of health facilities in Kenya, Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Mauritania have amoxicillin available. In Uganda and Nepal, the figure falls to a quarter of facilities.
The nutrition situation in parts of Turkana, Kenya remains classified as “extremely critical”, and, in total, 3.4 million people are expected to be in need of emergency food aid by the end of 2017. Already, one child in every four in the country is malnourished, making them more susceptible to disease: a severely malnourished child is nine times more likely to die from pneumonia than one who is well-fed. Worse still, malnutrition makes it more difficult to treat.
“Pneumonia is the highest cause of morbidity and mortality here,” says Adrian Kituma, the paediatrician in Lodwar hospital, a 132-bed institution that serves the entire county. “Most are likely to have malnutrition and sometimes rickets and other diseases. But it is pneumonia that brings them to the ward.”
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