Diarrhoea, pneumonia kill one child every two minutes in India
In 2016, almost 261,000 Indian children died before their fifth birthday due to diarrhoea or pneumonia , both preventable diseases. This is the highest toll taken anywhere in the world by the two diseases--a fifth of their global burden--according to the 2018 Pneumonia & diarrhoea Progress Report, released on November 12, 2018, which was World Pneumonia Day . This means that about 735 Indian children died everyday of either disease in 2016--one child every two minutes. Globally, pneumonia and diarrhoea cause a quarter of deaths in children under five and fighting them together can drastically reduce child mortality across the world. India has had mixed success in the prevention, control and treatment of diarrhoea and pneumonia in the year to 2016: Immunisation coverage improved but there was a decline in treatment indicators, said the report by the International Vaccine Access Center, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. This report analyses how effectiv...