Pneumococcal Disease
Imagine you are sitting with your two-year old baby and watching a quiz show. A young mother participating on the quiz show is faced with the question:-
- Which disease is responsible for the largest number of deaths among children under five years?
Answers like malaria, measles, polio race through your mind.
Well, the answer is “pneumococcal disease”. It is caused bya bug called pneumococcus (streptococcus pneumoniae).
Pneumococcus can give rise to a host of dieases:
- Pneumonia (infection of the lungs)
- Meningitis (infection of the lining of the brain)
- Bacteremia (blood infection)
- Otitis Media (infection in the middle ear)
Pneumococcal disease can lead to hearing loss, learning disabilities, speech delays, paralysis, brain damage and sometimes may even be fatal.
A recent UNICEF report estimated that 410,000 children under the age of five die of pneumonia every year in India alone. That is why the World Health Organization (WHO) has termed pneumonia - “the forgotten killer of children”.
- Now the question is - “Can pneumonic disease be prevented”?
Yes - vaccination can help prevent the disease as well as reduce the spread of this bug to other children.