Tamil Nadu - Coimbatore   

Rally to stress prevention of pneumonia

COIMBATORE: Students of schools, colleges and nursing institutions, doctors and self-help group members took out a rally here on Monday to stress the importance of vaccination to prevent pneumonia.

Led by district president of the Indian Association of Paediatrics M. Duraikannan, the rally from Gandhipuram to the Nehru Stadium sought to draw the attention of the public to children dying of pneumonia. Association secretary A. Parthasarathy and treasurer P. Shanmugham also took part.

“About 500 people took part in the rally to mark the World Pneumonia Day. Our main emphasis was on immunising children, under age five, against pneumonia,”

Dr. Duraikannan said. Tamil Nadu recorded 10,000 deaths of children aged under five last year owing to pneumonia and it was 4.08 lakh in the country. This month, the association would generate awareness among the public and also the medical fraternity through various methods. Handbills and other material would be distributed among the public.

A seminar on the disease and the preventive measures would be held for doctors and also the general public.

The objective was to point out the causative factors and tell both the sections that immunisation (with pneumococcal conjugate vaccine) was the most important preventive measure.

Dr. Duraikannan said awareness was low among the doctors and this prevented the detection of early signs. Most of these cases were treated as upper respiratory or lower respiratory infection.

The problem worsened by the time these cases were diagnosed as pneumonia.

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