KARACHI, Nov 12: Pakistan, with 79,800 pneumonia deaths in 2010 and fourth in top 15 countries accounting for three quarters of all childhood pneumonia deaths worldwide, has made progress in combating the killer disease in 2012 by meeting 66 per cent targets of the global action plan for prevention and control of pneumonia (GAPP).

The pneumonia progress report-2012, an annual report produced by International Vaccine Access Centre (IVAC), Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and released on Monday to mark the 4th World Pneumonia Day called for increased efforts in the fight against preventable and curable childhood pneumonia, which remained the number one killer disease among children under five years of age, claiming 1.3 million lives in 2011 alone.

The report focuses on the 15 countries accounting for 75 per cent of all childhood pneumonia deaths worldwide, and monitors progress these countries have made on pneumonia interventions recommended in the GAPP issued by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) in 2009.

The GAPP specified that child pneumonia deaths could be reduced by two-thirds if three child health interventions - breastfeeding, vaccination and case management including provision of appropriate antibiotics - were scaled up to reach 90 per cent of the world's children.

By meeting 90 per cent of the pneumonia intervention targets we can save the life of one child nearly every minute, says the acting director of IVAC, Dr Kate O’Brien in the report.

The report notes that none of the profiled countries have reached the 90 per cent coverage targets. Currently, only seven of the 15 countries have vaccine coverage levels at or above 80 per cent. Coverage of breastfeeding and access to antibiotics are similarly low in most countries, it said.

Since yearly data were not available for every GAPP intervention, the 2012 coverage score, therefore, included breastfeeding and treatment coverage data collected during a period from 2006 to 2010 and vaccine coverage data from 2011, said the report.

Combined coverage scores for the three GAPP interventions ranged from low of 39 per cent in Ethiopia to a high of 79 per cent in Sudan and South Sudan.

Bangladesh and Tanzania, formerly ranked 12th and 14th in childhood pneumonia deaths are no longer among the top 15 worldwide, having been replaced by Mali and the aggregated Sudan and South Sudan. India and Nigeria, two large countries with the highest numbers of child deaths worldwide, remained low scorers with an average intervention coverage rate of 55 per cent and 40 per cent respectively.

Pakistan secured sixth position in the list of 15 profiled countries in term of level of coverage for interventions in question. Its scores, as per the reports, remained as pertussis (DTP3)-80 per cent, measles-80 pc, Hib-80, PCV-introduced in 2012.

Countries such as Afghanistan, Kenya, Angola and Pakistan saw stalled progress or small decreases between 2010 and 2011, it saidThe estimated number of children with suspected pneumonia taken to an appropriate healthcare provider in Pakistan was reported 69, while only 50 per cent of such children received antibiotics.

As far as the third GAPP intervention, exclusive breast feeding or feeding infants only breast milk in the first six months of life was concerned, the report said that only 37 per cent of the children remained on exclusive breast feeding.

The report which revealed continued progress in some areas along with setbacks and challenges concluded that even in the face of significant progress, pneumonia remained the biggest threat to children’s lives, and disproportionately affected the poorest children in the world.