Jumoke Olasunkanmi
Exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months of a child’s life can help to prevent pneumonia, the World Health Organisation (WHO), said on Sunday.
In a publication to commemorate the World Pneumonia Day, it noted that preventing pneumonia is essential in reducing child mortality.
The foremost health organisation also added that while immunisation the most effective way of preventing the infection, the right nutrition can improve a child’s immunity, thus providing protection from illnesses including pneumonia.
“Adequate nutrition is key to improving children’s natural defences, starting with exclusive breastfeeding for the first 6 months of life. In addition to being effective in preventing pneumonia, it also helps to reduce the length of the illness if a child does become ill,” WHO’s statement read.
“While most healthy children can fight the infection with their natural defences, children whose immune systems are compromised are at higher risk of developing pneumonia. A child’s immune system may be weakened by malnutrition or undernourishment, especially in infants who are not exclusively breastfed,” it further stated.
Pneumonia accounts for 20 percent of deaths in children under five in Nigeria. It is an acute respiratory infection caused by viruses, bacterias and fungi which affects the lungs.
According to WHO, pneumonia is the single largest infectious cause of death in children worldwide, accounting for 740,180 deaths of children under the age of five in 2019, with the highest number of these deaths recorded in Southern Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa.
