Health and Medical Education Minister K. Sudhakar on Wednesday launched ‘Social Awareness and Action to Neutralise Pneumonia Successfully’ (SAANS), a campaign to ensure greater awareness and early detection of pneumonia in children under five. Pneumonia is a lung infection caused by bacterial, viral or fungal infection.
Speaking at the launch, the Minister said the under-five mortality of Karnataka is at 28/1000 live births as per SRS 2018. “The goal is to reduce under-five mortality to 23/1,000 live births by 2025. In order to achieve the National Health Policy goals, pneumonia mortality needs to be reduced to less than 3 per 1,000 live births,” he said.
Basavaraj Dabadi, State Deputy Director (Child Health), said childhood pneumonia continues to pose a significant health threat to the children under-five years of age across the country contributing to 15% of under-five deaths. “These are preventable deaths if we strengthen our systems to detect and treat pneumonia cases early,” he said.
