World Pneumonia Day: Grave picture for India

Every year, November 12 is observed as World Pneumonia Day to raise awareness and to advocate for global action to protect against, help prevent, and effectively treat this deadly illness.

India has the highest burden of pneumonia child deaths in the world with 1,58,176 pneumonia deaths in 2016.

A recent report from ‘Save the Children’ has warned that despite being easily treatable more than 1.7 million children are likely to die in India by 2030.

Every minute two children under five die of pneumonia across the world. India has the highest burden of pneumonia deaths in the world with 158176 deaths in 2016.India introduced the Pneumococcal Conjugate Vaccine  only in 2017.Among countries that had introduced it ,India had the lowest coverage(13%).The vaccine had been introduced in only six states.

India’s leaders should now wake up and take this matter seriously.