Pneumonia kills one child every 39 seconds; 127,000 died in India last year
Pneumonia
is the world's deadliest child killer, with a "forgotten
epidemic"
claiming one young life every 39 seconds, international health and
children's agencies warned Tuesday.
The
disease is preventable but still kills more children -- 800,000 under
the age of five last year -- than any other infection, they said in a
statement to mark World Pneumonia Day.
"Every
day, nearly 2,200 children under the age of five die from pneumonia,
a curable and mostly preventable disease," Henrietta Fore,
Executive Director of UNICEF, said in a joint statement.
"Strong
global commitment and increased investments are critical to the fight
against this disease... Only through cost-effective protective,
preventative and treatment interventions delivered to where children
are will we be able to truly save millions of lives." The
numbers make grim reading and compare with 437,000 under-fives dying
last year due to diarrhoea and 272,000 to malaria.
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