The pediatricians of different nationalities share a common duty to protect the health and safety of our children. Diseases know no borders, and to halt infections, every country must contribute to the global effort to stop disease. By working together to implement programmes like Hib vaccination, we are all protecting the health of our most vulnerable citizens, writes Dr Zulfiqar Bhutta, Dr MR Khan and Dr Nitin K Shah
Throughout South Asia, newspapers often highlight the risks posed by HIV/AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis. But among our children, a graver threat remains ignored by the headlines. In India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh, pneumonia kills more under-5 children than the rest of these diseases combined, yet it continues to receive only a fraction of the attention.
Globally, pneumonia is responsible for the deaths of 2 million children each year, more than one third of whom live in South Asia. But one of the most pressing challenges in fighting pneumonia has been identifying its cause. For years, doctors have suspected that Haemophilus influenzae type B (Hib), and Streptococcus pneumoniae – two pneumonia causing bacteria – were major contributors to child mortality. The truth remained unclear because routine surveillance could not always detect what caused specific cases.
Today, the answer is becoming clear. A new study published this week in the Pediatric Infectious Disease Journal finally confirms that Hib is responsible for a significant portion of severe childhood pneumonia. Similar data from a 2002 study in India demonstrated that Hib is a major cause of childhood pneumonia there as well.
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Dr Zulfiqar Bhutta is the chairman of the Department of Pediatrics at Aga Khan University in Karachi, Pakistan.
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