From Nosa Akenzua, Asaba
A University Don and Professor of Peadiatrics, Professor Dominic Osaghae on Sunday said that about 2million Nigerian children under the age of five could die from pneumonia in the next decade, adding that Nigeria currently records more than twenty percent of childhood deaths from the disease and other major diseases in Nigeria.
Professor Osaghae who spoke journalists at Ground Hotel in Asaba on the critical problem with pneumonia disease, said that boosting efforts to fight pneumonia could avert the over two million child deaths from the disease and other major health challenges in Nigeria, adding that pneumonia is caused by bacteria, viruses or fungi, and leaves children fighting for breath as their lungs fill with pus and fluid as the disease is a leading killer of children in Nigeria, causing nineteen percent of under five deaths.
Professor Osaghae, Dean, School of Medical Sciences, Igbinedion University, Okada in Edo State, however listed malnutrition, air pollution and lack of access to vaccines and antibiotics among the drivers of pneumonia, adding that an estimated 809,000 of these deaths would be averted by significantly scaling up services to prevent and treat pneumonia, especially boosting breastfeeding rates as key measures that reduce the risk of children dying from pneumonia including other diseases like diarrhea, mennigitis
