Health Focus On Preventing Pneumonia Infection

Living a healthy lifestyle and practicing good personal hygiene have been described as some of the ways to preventing pneumonia, which is the most serious outcome of acute respiratory infection in young children in Nigeria.
Tonite on our focus on health, our correspondent Yomi Otaigbe highlights what causes pneumonia and more ways of keeping the infection away from you and your loved ones.
The two extremes of life. The very young, under two years and those above sixty-five years. These most vulnerable groups are susceptible to pneumonia infection, owing to their levels of immunity. But that is not to say that those between these age groups cannot be infected with pneumonia bacteria or viruses.
Pneumonia which has symptoms such as cough, fever, chest pain, fast breathing and feeling short of breath among others is still among the leading killers of children under five years, accounting for fifteen percent of all deaths of children under 5 years old or 920, 136 children worldwide in 2015.

Although haemophilia influenza type b is part of the pentavalent vaccine given during routine immunization in Nigeria and the federal government's introduction of the pneumococcal conjugate vaccine in 2014 has been commended by some medical practitioners, there are some concerns.
While everyone waits for the production of made in Nigeria pneumococcal vaccine, simple measures such as early and exclusive breastfeeding, regular hand washing with soap and water, and ensuring a well-ventilated home and workplace will also reduce the incidents of pneumonia.