As the prolonged dry spell coupled with extreme cold has been taking its toll on children and the elderly alike, with the former more prone to catch cold and hypothermia, major hospitals of the provincial metropolis have recorded at least 3000 newborns hospitalized with acute pneumonia during the month of December, raising concerns among the public health officials that the worst is yet to come.
The tertiary care hospitals of Peshawar, including the Hayatabad Medical Complex, the Lady Reading Hospital and the Khyber Teaching Hospital, have revealed that the newborns hospitalized with acute pneumonia had contracted the disease due to lack of care and extreme cold.
Official statistics show that more than 18000 children were brought to Sifwat Ghayoor Shaheed Children Hospital of Infection Diseases with pneumonia and other respiratory ailments in the outgoing month. The hospital management has said that the number of children brought to the hospital showed an increase of 54 percent as compared with the previous month.
While the situation in the three major hospitals is not satisfactory, the KTH administration has declared an emergency due to the high rate of children hospitalized in December. The high rate of hospitalization of children under five due to pneumococcal infection has thrown health officials into a state of panic.
Pakistan has been ranked among the three nations with the highest risk of pneumonia in the world. More than 92,000 children die of pneumonia in Pakistan annually.
Health professionals say that exclusive breastfeeding for six months, vaccination and safe drinking water could save the children between six months and two years from respiratory diseases and pneumonia. They further say adequate indoor ventilation can help save many lives.
It is needless to say that vaccination of children should be the backbone of the parents’ strategies to deal with pneumonia and hypothermia, which is marked by abnormally low body temperature and which can prove fatal to the children.
The head of the immunization program in KP, Dr Arif while commenting on the pneumonia cases maintained that the disease has been largely ignored by the health officials and parents in the event of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Notwithstanding some significant progress in the Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI) scheduled campaigns, vast numbers of children in this province are yet to be immunized. As the cold weather persists, children of two years or younger and elderly people are at high risk of catching the ailment.
Public health officials stress the need for greater cooperation between public and private health sector to improve immunisation coverage for controlling pneumonia among children. Better preventive interventions, with broader outreach and more effective vaccines can guarantee prevention of this infectious disease.
