Pneumonia is an infection which causes air sacs in lungs to fill with fluid. This causes shortness of breath and also cough accompanied with phlegm. This is an ancient Greek word, meaning “lungs”. This attacks people of all ages, but old people and young children are at higher risk. Pneumonia is caused by Streptococcus pneumoniae bacteria.
Facts about Pneumonia:
Following are some interesting facts about pneumonia.
- Pneumonia kills more people when compared to other conditions that affects lungs. This is also primary cause of death in young children.
- Nearly 3 million, that is, 28% of all deaths is attributed to acute respiratory infections.
- About 10 – 12 million deaths that occur annually in toddlers below the age of 5 and more than 90% are in developing world.
- Infants living in poor communities often suffer from pneumonia and also die due to this condition.
- Most deaths of acute respiratory infections are due to severe pneumonia. Many of these respiratory infections can be cured with cheap and effective antibiotics.
- In developing countries, pneumonia is 5 times more than the developed countries. Death rate in developing countries is 10 – 50 times more when compared to developed countries.
- Pneumonia is caused by other infections like pertussis and measles. Pneumonia frequency in children can be reduced to 10 – 20 % by using immunisation vaccines. Most developing countries have lower immunisation rate because of funding and delivery problems.
- International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease was successful in addressing same challenges in tuberculosis management. This non-governmental organisation voluntarily challenges many lung diseases at global level and surely acute respiratory infections is one of them.
- There are several ways to reduce this problem and yet remains stubborn. This is because affected people do not access to the modern health care.
