𝙋𝙉𝙀𝙐𝙈𝙊𝙉𝙄𝘼: The World’s Biggest Infectious Killer of Children and Adults

Pneumonia has been identified as one of the major causes of deaths among the children in the country hence World Pneumonia Day is celebrated every year with the aim of spreading awareness among the members of the community to understand and fight against the disease.

Speaking during the world Pneumonia Day that was marked at the Kitale County Hospital Dr. Lucy Lasoi said Pneumonia is the world’s biggest infectious killer of children and adults. Adding that on average, Pneumonia kills more children than the combined mortality rate caused by AIDS, measles, and malaria.

“The World Pneumonia Day is celebrated with the aim of bringing the facts of the severity of pneumonia to public knowledge and to join hands in bringing global attention to the neglected condition of pneumonia” said Dr Lasoi.

Dr Lasoi said some of the signs of Pneumonia include coughing and having difficulty in breathing, feeding difficulty including breastfeeding fever, decreased activities adding that those are just the basic symptoms of what could be pneumonia among the children.

She added that Pneumonia can kill very fast especially among the children but can easily be managed by taking the baby to the hospital very fast for treatment.

“Our strength as the department of health is that we have trained health care workers in all our health facilities and supply of drugs for management or anything else required for management of pneumonia is readily available Said Dr Lasoi.

She added that the government has come up with guidelines and protocols for management of Pneumonia and most of the health care workers have the basic training on management of Pneumonia so the government is committed to continue promoting health that is why through other health sector stakeholders to organize more forums to sensitize the community on the importance to fight against Pneumonia.