Childhood pneumonia mortality – a permanent global emergency
Worldwide, pneumonia is the dominant cause of death in children. The widely accepted estimate that the condition causes close to two million child deaths every year is based on data from many sources, and is probably conservative. It also omits about 1 million neonatal deaths that are believed to be due to sepsis or pneumonia.
Since the early 1980s, international agencies and national governments have struggled to reduce the death toll from childhood pneumonia with programmes based on early recognition and treatment at the level of the community or the primary-care health facility. Initially this approach took the form of national acute respiratory infection programmes, which since the mid 1990s have been incorporated into the strategy known as Integrated Management of Childhood Illness (IMCI).
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