Pneumonia

Pneumonia

What is Pneumonia?

Pneumonia is an inflammatory illness of the lung. Pneumonia can result from a variety of causes, including infection with bacteria, viruses, fungi, or parasites, and chemical or physical injury to the lungs. Prior to the discovery of antibiotics, one-third of all people who developed pneumonia subsequently died from the infection, however every year, more than 2 million child die every year due to pneumonia.

Pneumonia is an infection fills lungs with fluid causing coughing, fever and difficulty breathing. Sever pneumonia, if left untreated properly, can be fatal. Given the proper care, pneumonia is preventable and curable; thousands of child deaths can be prevented through awareness and vaccination. Symptoms associated with pneumonia include cough, chest pain, fever, and difficulty in breathing. Diagnostic tools include x-rays and examination of the sputum. Treatment depends on the cause of pneumonia; bacterial pneumonia is treated with antibiotics.

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Our community context:

The World Health Organization called on the Egyptian government to exert urgent efforts that can prevent, protect against and treat pneumonia in children. It said that pneumonia was the world’s leading infectious killer of young children, took the lives of nearly 1.8 million children under age five every year.
The report added that 15 per cent of Egyptian children were likely to die of pneumonia each year unless the Ministry of Health takes more preventive measures against this killer disease.
“Safe and effective vaccines should exist to provide protection against the primary causes of pneumonia deaths,” the report said at the end of the conference, which was attended by 200 doctors from the Middle East and Africa.

“Every 20 seconds, a child dies from pneumonia. That’s 4,300 young lives lost every day, and nearly all of those are children from developing countries. Pneumonia is the highest cause 11% of infant mortality in Egypt. This tragedy can be prevented.

Our efforts:

Pneumonia Champions Leading the Response

Pneumonia is a forgotten killer of children leads to 11% of infant mortality in Egypt. The challenges can be concluded as follows:

P1: Lack of knowledge of risk factors and prevention measures at the family level with a much worse situation among families with low living conditions

P2: Low public attention and recognition of the disease and its seriousness

P3: Vaccination against pneumonia is not included in Egypt National mandatory Immunization Program

Our project objective was: To advocate for the children rights of leading a healthy life without pneumonia”

Project outcomes:

Establishment of a network of NGOs advocate for the pneumonia vaccination

Spread the information about pneumonia prevention “recognition of pneumonia symptoms, healthy house criteria, hygiene practices, breast feeding importance and importance of vaccine” for 1500 child and 200 social workers from 10 NGOs.