Childhood pneumonia cases up 50 per cent in 10 years

Hospitals in England recorded 56,000 child emergency admissions for the disease last year, a jump of more than 50 per cent compared to the number a decade ago.

Save the Children and Unicef UK have revealed that six children are being rushed to hospital with pneumonia every hour in England, with hospitals recording 56,000 child emergency admissions for the disease last year, a jump of more than 50 per cent compared to the number a decade ago.

In 2018, 27 children in England died from pneumonia, with rates of admission seen to be highest in poorer parts of the country.

Although pneumonia kills more children globally than any other disease, a recent poll for Save the Children by Opinium found that only four per cent of UK adults correctly identified pneumonia as the world’s biggest infectious killer. The majority (34 per cent) believed malaria caused the largest number of child deaths, followed by diarrhoea (18 per cent) and measles (11 per cent).

Children with immune systems weakened by other infections or malnutrition, and those living in areas with high levels of air pollution, are at far greater risk of developing the disease. Pneumonia can be prevented with vaccines, and easily treated with antibiotics costing just 20 pence if properly diagnosed.

Despite the UK’s leading role in improving access to vaccines and health services, globally, tens of millions of children are still not vaccinated around the world – and one in three with symptoms do not receive essential medical care.

The two charities are calling on the future UK government to increase the proportion of its overseas aid that is spent on healthcare, including a pledge to ensure the replenishment of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, which gives children in the poorest countries access to vaccines. In addition, they are urging the future government to step up the fight against malnutrition – the most significant driver of childhood pneumonia – by pledging £800 million a year from 2021 to 2025 at the Nutrition for Growth Summit in Tokyo in 2020.

Kevin Watkins, CEO of Save the Children, said: “These findings show pneumonia is a disease that affects the poorest children worst of all, wherever they are in the world. But while British children almost always survive, millions of children in poor countries are dying for want of vaccines, a few pence worth of antibiotics, and routine oxygen treatment. With such simple solutions, no child should have to die from pneumonia regardless of where they live.”

“This is a forgotten global epidemic that demands an urgent international response. The UK government must continue to invest in global efforts to tackle the pneumonia crisis so that children everywhere can access life-saving healthcare.”

Nick Roseveare, interim executive director of Unicef UK, said: “We’re lucky in the UK that we have the NHS and a childhood vaccination programme which includes pneumonia and influenza, so fewer children get these illnesses in the first place. If they do get ill, most can be treated within our healthcare system. However, these findings show that for thousands of children outside of the UK pneumonia is not an illness of the past but a killer in the present that will continue to prematurely take children’s lives if we don’t act now.

“Pneumonia can be easily prevented and cured with simple, and cost-effective measures, yet it remains the main infectious cause of death among children under five globally. We can change this, we must change this. We have the knowledge, tools and power to save children from a preventable death.”