For every 1,000 live births in Karnataka, 28 infants die: Sudhakar

For every 1,000 live births in Karnataka, at least 28 infants die. Health Minister Dr K Sudhakar revealed this fact on Wednesday at state-run KC General Hospital in Malleswaram. The most common causes of these deaths are diarrhoea and pneumonia.

To remedy this, the SAANS programme was launched on Wednesday for skill-building and training of service providers for identification and standardised management of pneumonia. SAANS is short for Social Awareness and Actions to Neutralise Pneumonia Successfully.

"A state-wide awareness programme and training for ASHA workers and other staff are being conducted to prevent children under the age of five from dying of pneumonia. One-and-a-half million children in the country suffer from pneumonia by the age of five. Pneumonia occurs in some of the 28 children per 1,000 live births in the state who die of it," Sudhakar said.

Pneumonia is a lung infection caused by a bacterial, viral or fungal infection, in which the air sacs (alveoli) at the end of the airway tube (bronchioles) fill with pus and may become solid. The infection interferes with the delivery of oxygen from air-sacs into the blood and the removal of carbon dioxide from the blood, said Dr Basavaraj Dhabadi, Deputy Director, Child Health, Department of Health and Family Welfare.

Childhood pneumonia is caused by a combination of risk factors related to the host i.e., the child and the infecting organisms (microbes). Within the child, low birth weight, malnutrition, non-exclusive breastfeeding (during the first six months of life), indoor air pollution, lack of complete immunisation, lack of hygiene and many other socio-economic factors lead to pneumonia in children.

The disease continues to be the topmost infectious killer among under-five children, contributing to 15% of under-five deaths in the country. Around 1.4 lakh children die due to pneumonia annually in the country. Pneumonia is one of the major and preventable causes of under-five deaths which can be reduced by preventing the risk factors which attribute to the under-five deaths.

Dr Dhabadi said: "These are preventable deaths if we strengthen our systems to detect and treat pneumonia cases early. According to the SRS 2018 report, the under-5 mortality in Karnataka is 28/1,000 live births, and the goal of the National Health Policy 2017 is to reduce this to 23/1,000 live births by 2025."

In order to achieve the National Health Policy goals, pneumonia mortality needs to reduce to less than 3 per 1,000 live births. This is also in tune with the goal of the India Integrated Action Plan for Pneumonia and Diarrhoea, he added.

As per the National Family Health Survey-5, the prevalence of acute respiratory infection (ARI) among under-five children (in the two weeks preceding the survey) was 1.5% while 35% of them could not access a health facility/health provider seeking care.

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