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Childhood Pneumonia: The Impact of the Pandemic and What Needs to Be Done Now
Series | COVID-19 and response strategy
Authors: Daniel G. Abiétar and Quique Bassat (ISGlobal)* [ This document is one of a series of discussion notes addressing fundamental questions about global health. Its purpose is to transfer scientific knowledge into the public conversation and the decisionmaking process. These documents are based on the best information available and may be updated as new information comes to light. ]
22 December 2022 Photo: Abbie Trayler-Smith / Panos H4+ HR
Pneumonia is the most deadly infectious disease in children. Childhood pneumonia is responsible for 15% of all deaths in children under five years of age and one-third of all pneumonia deaths worldwide. Before the pandemic, pneumonia was causing over 800,000 deaths among children under five years of age every year worldwide, more than 2,000 every day.1 Every year, severe pneumonia leaves an estimated 4.2 million under-fives with critically low oxygen levels in 124 lowand middle-income countries.2 This represents a clear violation of children‘s right to survival and development. Almost all pneumonia deaths are preventable and the pneumonia mortality rate is highest in the poorest populations around the globe, mainly in low-
and lower-middle income countries (see Figure 1). The probability of a child contracting pneumonia and dying is up to sixty times higher in the thirty countries with the highest mortality rates compared to high-income countries.3 In 2020, COVID-19 was added to the many factors that increase mortality in patients with pneumonia. The pandemic not only increased the burden of the disease, but also hindered patient access to primary care services. It also complicated the diagnosis of non-COVID diseases and disrupted the operation of health information systems because of the inadequate infrastructures and capacities of public health services worldwide. Two other major risk factors for pneumonia morbidity and mortality are indoor air pollution caused by the
* Daniel G. Abiétar is a resident physician specialising in Preventive Medicine and Public Health at the Parc de Salut Mar - Universitat Pompeu Fabra - Agència de Salut Pública de Barcelona Teaching Unit (PSMar-UPF-ASPB ). Quique Bassat is an ICREA Research Professor and Head of the Malaria Programme at ISGlobal. This brief was written with the collaboration of Clara Marín, coordinator of ISGlobal’s Global Analysis and Development department, and Gonzalo Fanjul, ISGlobal’s Policy Director. 1
Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, Global Burden of Disease Study (GBD), 2019.
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UNICEF (11 November 2020): https://www.unicef.org/press-releases/severe-pneumonia-leaves-42-million-children-desperate-oxygen-each-year 3
Save the Children, UNICEF and Every Breath Counts. (2020), Every child’s right to survive: An agenda to end pneumonia deaths.
www.isglobal.org
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