Call to action on world pneumonia day

Promoting the use of social networks in pneumonia

BACKGROUND

Pneumonia is a serious health concern, but it does not attract the attention it warrants. Perhaps this is due to a lack of understanding of the real extent of this infectious disease in the general population.

METHODS

A literature review was performed to assess the role of social networks as a means to raise awareness over pneumonia worldwide and increase its visibility.

RESULTS

In 2017, approximately 800,000 children under 5 years and approximately one million older people died of pneumonia. The importance of this pathology remains underestimated, despite the publication of many articles, comments, and editorials dedicated to rectifying the imbalance and to reduce its impact and associated mortality. Current misperceptions about pneumonia are alarming. Education and awareness are essential in the fight against this major public health threat; in this endeavor, social networks can be used to distribute science-based information about the disease and thus raise awareness among the general public about the dangers it poses. Approximately 3.8 billion people were using social media at the beginning of 2020, representing more than half of the world's population.

CONCLUSION

Social networks offer a valuable tool for disseminating scientific information about pneumonia, increasing its visibility, and in general raising awareness about this preventable disease.

Pneumonia Mortality among Children under 5 in China from 1996 to 2013: An Analysis from National Surveillance System

Objectives

We investigated the mortality rate of pneumonia (PMR) among children under 5 and its time trend from 1996 to 2013 to determine the priorities for ending preventable deaths from pneumonia in children under 5, and share China’s successful experience in reducing PMR with other developing countries.

Methods

We used data from China’s Under 5 Child Mortality Surveillance System (U5CMSS) to calculate the PMR and the proportion of pneumonia deaths to total deaths of children under 5. The data were grouped by urban and rural areas with Cochran-Mantel-Haensel (CMH) test and Chi-square test to examine the differences of PMR and proportion. The time trend was tested by Cochran-Armitage trend test.

Results

The overall PMR of children under 5 was reduced by 85.5% (from 1053.2 to 153.2 per 100,000 live births) from 1996 to 2013, with the urban and rural areas reduced by 69.1% (from 188.4 to 58.2 per 100,000 live births) and 84.7% (from 1252.8 to 191.9 per 100,000 live births), respectively. The overall proportion of pneumonia deaths to total deaths was also declined from 23.4% in 1996 to 12.8% in 2013, with the rural areas decreased from 24.4% to 13.2% and the urban areas decreased from 11.1% to 9.7%. The PMRs in neonates (0-27 days), post-neonates (1-11 months), and childhood (12-59 months) were reduced by 80.7%, 77.4%, and 80.1%, respectively in rural areas, and 71.7%, 69.6%, and 39.0%, respectively in urban areas. During 1996-2013, the PMR in children under 5 years was 4.9 fold higher in rural areas relative to that in urban areas, with relative risk (RR) of 3.6 and 6.4 in neonates and 1- to 59-month-old children, respectively.

Conclusions

PMR in children under 5 significantly declined in China from 1996 to 2013, especially in rural areas. However, huge disparities still existed between rural and urban areas. Infants had the highest PMR, which indicated that interventions aiming at prevention and control of infant pneumonia should be the priority for further reducing PMR in China.

Advocacy for pneumonia prevention in Korea: a multi-dimensional program organised around World Pneumonia Day

There are limited examples of population-based approaches that engage a broad range of stakeholders for prevention of pneumonia. In 2010, a multi-dimensional public-private partnership was established around World Pneumonia Day (WPD) in Seoul, Korea and included the following components: a) formation of an expert advisory group, b) creation of educational materials tailored for lay persons, c) creation of a dedicated WPD internet website in the local language, d) organisation of a WPD venue in central Seoul, e) creation of video and social networking messages for wide distribution, and f) engagement of parents, health-care professionals, public health agencies and policymakers. This project directly engaged 7 expert health professionals, 5 national- and city-level health facilities, and parents from communities. The program reached out to 70,560 persons including 25,200 persons who were contacted in person at publicly-held WPD events. An educational video produced for WPD was aired in the Seoul subway and visible to several million persons riding subway lines that aired the pneumonia public service announcements over a two-month period (February to March, 2011). In addition, the Korean WPD website experienced 4,975 page views with 3,338 visitors and the micro blog associated with this site hosted 82 posts from site visitors. Based on participant numbers and contact volumes achieved in this project, the Korean WPD program was widely accepted and proved to be a highly effective in reaching a large audience to advocate for pneumonia prevention. One key to success of this program appears to be the unique public-private partnership around a major health issue. The methods and tools developed in this program have excellent potential for adaptation and application in other countries where pneumonia may be an under recognised problem among the general public.