Ruby Rabiu
2 November 2009
Abuja — The Federal Government will by 2011 acquire the much sought pneumonia vaccine to curb the spread of pneumonia which has been identified as one of the biggest causes of child death in the world.
Minister of State for Health Dr Aliyu Idi Hong, who said that the deadly disease will be controllable with the use of the Pneumonia Conjugate Vaccine (PVC), explained that the long wait is due to the fact that the country has to join the queue alongside other African countries to acquire the vaccine.
Hong was speaking during the celebration of the maiden world pneumonia day organized by the health ministry, the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) and other donor parties.
Hong added that the disease can however be prevented and treated saying, "this disease can be reduced by adhering to exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months of a baby, regular hand washing, reducing indoor pollution from cooking stove and tobacco smoking."
"Furthermore the treatment for pneumonia especially those of bacteria origin involve the use of antibiotics. Therefore, preventing pneumonia before it occurs is essential to reducing the burden, this can only be achieved with the use of vaccine but in developing countries like Nigeria, millions of children have no access to them."
Meanwhile the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) have revealed that they will be spending $39 billion to tackle the disease across 68 high risk countries.
Hong said," the vaccine though available is not yet obtainable in any African country, but the government is making frantic efforts to ensure that it would be available come 2011".
The celebration themed 'Prevent, protect and treat' is aimed at creating awareness about pneumonia which is a public health concern.
Pneumonia has been identified as the second killer disease of children under 5 in Nigeria after malaria, there are about 6 million new cases of the disease annually, killing about 200,000 children in Nigeria and a global death of 2 million.
In a statement by the WHO and UNICEF, the duo have said that about $39 billion will be needed to implement a strategy called the Global Action Plan for the prevention and control of Pneumonia (GAPP), which will save up to 3.5 million children from dying of pneumonia by 2015.
These funds will be expended across 68 high burden countries between 2010-2015 even as they predicted that the cost of implementing GAPP is expected to rise over the next six years, from an annual need of $3.8 billion in 2010 to $8.0 billion in 2015.
Director-General of WHO, Dr. Margaret Chan said "this action plan provides the strategy to prevent and control pneumonia, which today kills more children than any other illness" and that "we know the strategy will work, and if it is applied in every high burden country, we will be able to prevent millions of deaths".
UNICEF Executive Director, Ms. Ann Veneman also stated that the disease, a leading cause of death of over 4,000 children daily, "effective interventions to reduce deaths caused by pneumonia must be used more widely and made more readily available for children at risk".
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