By 2030, approximately 11 million children are being threatened with pneumonia.

By the end of the next decade, nearly 11 million children in the world are being threatened by pneumonia, according to Johns Hopkins University and Save the Children, according to current trends. More than 10.8 million children under the age of five are expected to die by 2030 with virtually preventable epidemics. The World Anti-Viral Society was released on Monday.

Most elderly people in the developed world are suffering from pneumonia, but they are mostly children in developing countries. According to the study, in 2016, more than 880,000 children under 2 died of the disease.

Based on previous figures, some countries in Africa and South Asia will be among the worst affected countries. For example, Nigeria and India have killed 1.7 million children with childhood pneumonia, 700,000 people in Pakistan and 635,000 in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

At the same time, the authors of the study emphasized that it is possible to prevent many deaths in a relatively simple way. For example, if the vaccination coverage is wide, antibiotics are inexpensive, and the child's nutritional status is good, 4.1 million people may die.

Keeping a child's head, Kevin Watkins said, "I can not believe that about one million children die each year with diseases that have the knowledge and resources we can conquer." Pneumonia is different from the other dangerous disease "no pink loops, peaks or marches of the earth".

"But for those who are interested in justice and basic health care for children, this forgotten killer should be an important concern for our age," Watkins said. To this end, we must "dramatically" lower the price of existing pneumococcal vaccines.

Pneumonia can be caused by viruses or bacteria. If the immune system of an affected person is not weakened early, treatment is possible. In many cases, however, children can become ill and are already weakened by malnutrition.

Every year globally, children die of pneumonia rather than malaria, diarrhea and measles. Until 2030, the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals include the "End of preventable child mortality".

Published: 13.11.2018 – Source: Agence-France-Presse