Group Strives to Reduce Pneumonia in Nigeria

pneumonia
This newborn baby was put to his mother's breast within 30 minutes of delivery, to ensure good attachment and to make sure the baby received the colostrum. Save the Children is one of the partners of PRINNMCH, which trained Hajiya Sakina, the Midwife at this clinic, who aiso the also the Nurse in Charge of the malnutrition clinic. Additional Information Save the Children’s Infant and Young Child Feeding (IYCF) programme encourages breastfeeding. This can include back massages for mothers having difficulty to stimulate milk production. In this region of north Nigeria, when mothers can’t breastfeed they resort to feeding their infants fura (millet porridge), goat milk, or water and glucose. In this region, mixed feeding (breastmilk plus fura, animal milk or water and glucose) is predominant in infants, which frequently puts their babies’ lives at risk. In the week that the world’s population reaches 7 billion, this baby boy becomes his mother’s tenth child. Globally, 7.5 million children still die before reaching their fifth birthday every year. Most will have lived their short lives facing a daily struggle for survival in the world’s poorest countries, where infections are frequent and many families don’t have easy access to a doctor or nurse or other trained healthworker. But progress is being made. The seven billionth baby is more likely to reach the age of five than at any point in history. In 1987, when the five billionth baby was born, one in nine children never reached five years old. Today that figure is one in 16.

Ahead of this year’s World Pneumonia Day, Every Breath Counts, a global platform against Pneumonia has made fresh commitments towards raising awareness about the disease in Nigeria.

The announcement was made even as Nigeria was reported as having the second highest pneumonia mortality in the world with children under five most affected. Pneumonia kill more children than any other infectious disease – almost 1 million children every year.

The organisation has planned to use social and traditional media to raise awareness to pneumonia’s prevalence and burden in the country.

Also,the platform will look to Her Excellency Wife of the President of Nigeria, Aisha Buhari for participation and endorsement, as other influencers such as Hadiza Aliyu, Rahama Sadau and Ali Nuhu have been contacted for the campaign.

Meanwhile, Ali Nuhu (@alinuhu) will lead a twitter chat to discuss his role in the campaign on November 11th at 11AM (Nigeria). Pneumonia Month jumpstarts the campaign that is expected to run through January 2017.

Every Breath Counts is a global platform that unites diverse partners from across many sectors to raise awareness of pneumonia as the leading killer of children and to catalyze investment in prevention and community access to appropriate treatment. EBC collaborates with initiatives on climate change, household air pollution, nutrition and education among many others.

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