Mumbai: In every four minutes one child under the age of five dies due to unnecessary disorders like pneumonia in India.
The International Access Vaccine Centre blames India for not introducing the latest vaccines and treatments regarding to disease.
According to the latest report by the centre based at Johns Hopkins University, as many as 3.71 lakh Indian children die every year due to pneumonia.
It finds every fourth child, who dies of pneumonia all over the world. The ratio is much poorer than sub Saharan Africa, Pakistan, and even Afghanistan.
Now yet, India is considering along with just four countries to not introducing the latest generation of pneumonia vaccines, which protect against the 23 most common damage of the disease.
Dr Mukesh Agarwal, HOD Pediatric at KEM Hospital, said to CNN-IBN‘s correspondent Nikitia Mishra that , “Vaccine up to certain extent can limit the morality and morbidity, but definitely control of environmental risk factor is more important. Basically it is the overall hygiene, the avoidance of over crowding and the environmental risk factors”.
The International Access Vaccine Centre says the new vaccine would help save at least 4 million children across developing countries in the next decade.
However, the vaccine requires four booster shots. Altogether, the cost would be Rs 16000.
Dr Sonu Udani, Pediatrician at Hinduja Hospital said, “It is rather unfair that only one percent of population can afford the expensive vaccines and have access to them and the people who need them most don’t have access to them. So that’s were the fight lies.”
He further said that “Just like they fought for AIDS medication to be made cheaper and now ART has been made really cheap for the patients, same things should be done for vaccines.”
According to Nikitia Mishra the recent report on this issue also highlights low rates of breast feeding in India as a crucial aspect for child deaths. It is may be due to the out of cost and access.
According to the WHO, breast feeding provides vigorous protection and Pneumonia wouldn’t take such a terrible toll if 70-80 per cent of infants were breastfed, as opposed to 46 per cent of infants were provided in India.
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