Inexpensive Measures Could Stop Childhood Pneumonia

A study led by Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health shows that inexpensive measures, that can be easily implemented could stop childhood pneumonia. Immunization, improving indoor air quality, and good nutrition could reduce pneumonia deaths among children by ninety percent.

The research, implemented in conjunction with the World Health Organization (WHO) and public health schools determined that the most effective way to stop childhood pneumonia and deaths is by getting children vaccinated, promoting breastfeeding, and providing zinc supplementation to children. The measures would result also reduces healthcare costs. Improving indoor air quality by eliminating the use of wood and other solid fuels for cooking would reduce twenty percent of cases of childhood pneumonia.

Louis Niessen, MD, PhD, lead author of the study and associate professor in the Bloomberg School’s Department of International Health says, “The interventions we examined already exist, but are not fully implemented in the developing world. In addition, implementation of these interventions do not require a great deal of new infrastructure to carry out.”

The next step is determining how to implement the measures identified to reduce childhood pneumonia deaths in other countries. Pneumonia is the leading causes of death in infants in developing countries, claiming 2.2 million children annually.

The study shows that childhood pneumonia could be stopped by efficient implementation of simple and inexpensive measures. Improving community based treatment programs is also found to be an important measure to stop childhood pneumonia.

http://www.jhsph.edu/publichealthnews/press_releases/2009/niessen_pneumonia.html