Not long ago, my very curious niece asked me to explain UNICEF's work. I told her about child survival issues, about how, in certain parts of the world, kids get sick and even die from things that she will never have to worry about: they don't have clean water, don't get enough to eat, come down with pneumonia…
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| © UNICEF/ HQ06-2554/Giacomo Pirozzi |
| A baby with severe pneumonia lies in the pediatric ward of a hospital in the Solomon Islands. He has a breathing tube in his nose and an intravenous needle taped to his hand. |
"Pneumonia!" she said. "Isn't that what old people get when they go outside in winter without a coat?" She's not alone in imagining pneumonia as an elderly man in a wheelchair, coughing quietly from the dim corner of a nursing home. Would you be as shocked as she was to learn that pneumonia is the number one killer of children under five? That more children die from pneumonia than from AIDS, malaria and measles combined?
Pneumonia is sometimes called the "silent killer." Actually, it turns out there are a number of diseases out there called the "silent killer." And in some ways it may not be the most apt description of pneumonia. But it conveys that this very deadly disease is often very overlooked.
Pneumonia tends to piggyback on other diseases, hitting children who are already vulnerable. In developing countries, where the nearest doctor may be a three-day walk away, pneumonia frequently goes undiagnosed. And suddenly, it's too late. UNICEF is tackling this problem by helping to train community health volunteers who can identify and treat pneumonia and other nasty childhood illnesses right in their village. In Nepal, for instance, there are now 48,500 community health volunteers and they are called, for obvious reasons, "miracle women."
In addition, UNICEF vaccinates against all the diseases that give pneumonia a foothold. We teach about the health importance of exclusive breastfeeding for new mothers, we work to prevent and fight HIV/AIDS and we even help families reduce indoor air pollution (pneumonia likes bad air).