Pneumonia is Nigeria’s Silent Child Killer

Vanguard
Jan 20, 2009
By Dr. Adegoke Falade & Dr. Kikelomo Osinusi

Nigeria is the economic and political powerhouse of West Africa. It is Africa’s most populous nation and one of the wealthiest countries on the continent. Despite this, Nigeria has one of the highest child mortality rates in Africa. Currently, one out of every five Nigerian children dies before their fifth birthday. And what disease is responsible for more deaths than any other? Childhood pneumonia.

As paediatricians, we are deeply concerned by the toll that childhood pneumonia exacts on our nation. Deaths from this disease are even more tragic because they are largely preventable.

Today, we are gathering with Nigeria’s leading child health experts at the Paediatric Association of Nigeria Conference (PANCONF) in Ibadan to deliberate the challenges of child health in the 21st Century. Here, we are attempting to inject a sense of urgency into discussions about how to reduce child mortality.

According to UNICEF, preventing childhood pneumonia is critical to reaching the Millennium Development Goal 4 target of reducing child deaths. Consequently, many of our discussions will focus on childhood pneumonia. This disease is a leading cause of child death worldwide, killing more than two million children each year. In Nigeria, that translates to an estimated 200,000 annual deaths.
The good news is that vaccines against two major causes of childhood pneumonia are available. Along with other prevention techniques, such as exclusive breast feeding, zinc supplementation, reducing indoor air pollution and using antibiotics, vaccines have the potential to help accelerate our fight against child pneumonia.

Haemophilus influenzae type B (Hib) and pneumococcus are the leading cause(s) of lifethreatening childhood pneumonia in this region, accounting for about half of all cases. In April 2008, Uganda announced that it had prevented an estimated 28,000 cases of pneumonia and meningitis and 5000 deaths each year due to Hib. It accomplished this through the introduction of vaccine against Hib.

Meanwhile, a vaccine that protects against pneumococcus will be introduced nationwide in several African countries this year, including South Africa, the Gambia and Rwanda. The GAVI Alliance, an international partnership devoted to funding child health initiatives, has already approved six African countries for introduction of the vaccine, which was shown to prevent 16 per cent of all child deaths when given routinely in a clinical trial in the Gambia.

A study in South Africa even showed the vaccine to be highly effective in HIV positive populations. Both Hib and pneumococcal conjugate vaccine(s) are recommended by the World Health Organization, and many African countries already use or are planning to introduce both vaccines.

Although such vaccines are available on the private market in Nigeria, they rarely reach the children who are at highest risk of dying of these diseases. Developing countries can purchase vaccines against preventable diseases like Hib and pneumococcus with support from the GAVI Alliance at a cost between 15 and 30 cents per dose.

As we face the challenges of child health in the 21st century, we must protect Nigeria’s most vulnerable children from needless diseases. Indeed, we already have the resources and support required to do so.

As members of the Paediatric Association of Nigeria, we hope the messages arising from the PANCONF meeting this week raise awareness of pneumonia among the government, health institutions, paediatricians, and parents in this country. And, following this meeting, we hope that those in power take urgent steps to reduce this disease’s impact. Let’s renew our focus on Nigeria’s promising future by investing in those who will drive it—our children.

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