Childhood Pneumonia Essay

3.8 MAGNITUDE OF THE PROBLEM

Childhood pneumonia is the single most leading cause of death among under-five children. According to 2000 WHO report around 156 million new episodes of childhood pneumonia occurred globally, in that 95% of them in developing countries, out of the above-mentioned cases 8.7% of pneumonia are life threatening and required hospital admissions (Rudan,2008). The incidence was estimated at 0.29 episodes per child-year in developing and 0.05 episodes per child year in developed countries (Rudan et al.2013). In the year 2010 the incidence was 0.22 episodes per child-year though it is reduced from the year 2000, it remains an important public health problem (CHERG, 2013). Africa and Southeast Asia are responsible for 70% of the worldwide deaths due to pneumonia (Singh 2005). Pneumonia is a leading cause of under-five mortality and mortality in India also. The million death study conducted in 2010 reported that there were 0.37 million deaths among under-five children due to pneumonia, rating it higher than the diarrheal deaths (0.30 million) (Million Death Study Collaborators, 2010). The IVAC study reported that there were 31 million deaths

Poor quality is linked to many health problems because there are multiple pollutants present indoors. The indoor air quality can be assessed with different measurements of common pollutants such as measuring carbon monoxide, particulate matter, air sampling for volatile organic compounds and air sampling for biological agents. Measuring carbon dioxide indoors will help us to understand the quality of air present in a place and the adequacy of ventilation. It acts like a surrogate measurement for other pollutants. When the carbon dioxide concentration is high, it is understood that other pollutants levels also will be high, and ventilation is poor It is an essential indicator for maintaining adequate indoor air quality (PersilyAK