12 Nov 2010

Toddler Killer Number Two

Toddler Killer Number Two - Pneumonia remains a major threat and the main causes of child mortality. Pneumonia control efforts can contribute significantly to the decline of infant mortality.

This was revealed in the seminar "Accelerating Efforts Combating Pneumonia" held Indonesian Pediatric Association (IDAI), Tuesday (9 / 11) in Jakarta. Activity in the framework of the World Pneumonia Day (WPD), which falls on Nov. 12. This year, WPD takes the theme "Fight Pneumonia, Save a Child", which is to fight and save the children from the dangers of pneumonia.

Chairman Central Board IDAI Badriul Hegar said infectious disease is still the health problems of children aged under five years old (toddlers) in Indonesia. One of them is pneumonia (pneumonia).

Pneumonia is the single leading cause of death in children of the largest in the world.

"In Indonesia, pneumonia into a single cause of infant mortality second only to diarrhea, both for infants aged under one year (12.7 percent) and infants under five years old (13.2 percent). Improved health of young children tend to stagnate," he said.

Badriul said, need to be accelerated to overcome the problem of pneumonia. Especially with the desire achievement of the Millennium Development Goal target in 2015 related to infant mortality and child mortality.

Another speaker, Boediman pediatrician explained, pneumonia is an inflammation of lung tissue due to bacterial or viral infections that cause respiratory distress. Based on data from the World Health Organization (WHO) and United Nations Agency for Children and Education (UNICEF), about 50 percent of pneumonia caused by Streptococcus pneumoniae (pneumococcal bacteria) and 20 percent caused by Haemophilus influenzae type B (Hib). The rest caused by viruses and other causes.

Pneumonia is dangerous because it can cause death due to lung can not perform its function to supply oxygen to the body. "Body trying to take more oxygen to maintain oxygen levels so that the baby then breathing fast," he said.

Early detection
Pneumonia is often not detected early because the early symptoms of colds is preceded, such as fever, cough, and runny nose. In fact, the baby sometimes there is no fever. The disease can be accompanied by headache and loss of appetite. If the symptoms are advanced, usually a quick breath and chest wall are interested.

"Calculation of breath becomes very important and becomes an important marker of pneumonia," said another speaker, a pediatrician Darmawan B Setyanto. If that occurs, infants need hospital help.

In severe cases could be a decline in body temperature, seizures, decreased consciousness, breathing hard and rough, not to eat, and the child looks blue (especially around the mouth).

Boediman add, mortality and morbidity from pneumonia related to a number of factors, including poverty and low levels of education. Another factor is low birth weight or premature, do not receive exclusive breastfeeding, vitamin A deficiency, malnutrition, and incomplete immunization.

"When babies are born with low weight or premature, immune and respiratory systems have not developed as well as children born with good weight and age," said Boediman.

Director of Direct Transmitted Disease Control Ministry of Health M Subuh said that the government has set an acute respiratory tract infections as a priority and ensure availability of essential drugs, diagnostic tools, especially the sound timer (to calculate the speed of baby breath), and oxygen concentrators to governance like pneumonia. However, the commitment to prevention of pneumonia has not been evenly distributed, whereas for the prevention of pneumonia required the cooperation and partnership with various parties.

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