Resource detail

India continues to have the highest pneumonia and diarrhoeal disease burden in the world, losing 4,00,000 children to these preventable diseases before they turn five, the latest report has revealed. Many more suffer from severe illness. The Pneumonia and Diarrhoea Progress Report 2013, published by the International Vaccine Access Center at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, says many Indian children do not have access to life-saving treatment and prevention measures. In the Pneumonia Progress Report 2012, India topped the list of countries with the most child deaths. While the country has made some progress in coverage of pneumonia interventions since last year’s report and is poised to protect more children from both diseases with the upcoming national scale-up of pentavalent vaccine and the promise of an indigenous rotavirus vaccine — the coverage remains below targeted levels. In 2012, India’s coverage of pertussis measles was 72 per cent and of measles, 74. Its percentage of exclusive breastfeeding for six months was 46. India lost 436 children below five years per 1000 livebirths in 2013 due to pneumonia and diarrhoea. These diseases continue to be the leading killers of children under 5 worldwide. According to the latest estimates by the United Nations Children’s Fund, pneumonia and diarrhoea together claimed the lives of more than 1.7 million children below five years in 2012 alone.