Groups: Simple steps fight pneumonia, biggest killer of kids under 5
One in five deaths in children worldwide is caused by pneumonia, a preventable disease, but there are simple and effective ways to reduce its burden, says a joint statement from the World Health Organization (WHO), United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), and Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI) issued today, the fifth World Pneumonia Day, themed "Innovate to End Child Pneumonia."
More than 1 million children die each year from pneumonia, according to the statement. Dr. Mickey Chopra, UNICEF's chief of health, said, "Every 30 seconds, a child younger than 5 dies of pneumonia. This is a great shame, as we know what it takes to prevent children from dying of this illness. Tacking pneumonia doesn't necessarily need complicated solutions."
Five simple but effective interventions are given in the statement:
- Exclusive breastfeeding to age 6 months, followed by breastfeeding plus nutritious food to age 2 years
- Vaccination against pertussis, measles, Haemophilus influenzae type b, and pneumococcus
- Safe drinking water, good sanitation, and the availability of hand washing facilities
- Improved cooking stoves that reduce indoor air pollution
- Pneumonia treatment, including amoxicillin and oxygen
Progress has been made. In April of this year, the WHO and UNICEF released the Integrated Global Action Plan for the Prevention and Control of Pneumonia and Diarrhoea aimed at more efficiently and effectively using limited health resources to fight these often-fatal childhood diseases. The WHO in October updated its guidelines for pneumonia treatment, which recommend simpler antibiotic regimens, and issued a handbook for healthcare workers outlining the process for introducing the pneumococcal vaccine.
Mauritania and Papua New Guinea are introducing the pneumococcal vaccine today, and 50 more countries are expected to introduce it by 2015, the agencies said.
Nov 12 WHO/UNICEF/GAVI statement
Study: Conflicts of interest may affect pandemic risk assessment
UK academics with conflicts of interest, such as ties to drug companies, were about six times more likely to categorize 2009 H1N1 pandemic flu (pH1N1) as a higher risk than official predictions stated, compared with academic who had no such conflicts, a study yesterday in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health found.
Researchers analyzed UK newspaper articles on pH1N1 flu and noted when academics made a risk assessment of the pandemic. They also assessed conflicts of interest from 2005 through 2009 for each professional. They used this definition:"Conflicts of interests exists when an author (…) has financial or personal relationships that inappropriately influence (bias) his or her actions," which includes such factors as ties to pharmaceutical companies.
When both academics and government agencies estimated the risk posed by H1N1, one in two academics assessed the risk as higher than official predictions, the authors found. They found that academic with conflicts of interest had a 5.8 times higher chance of attributing a greater risk to the pandemic than was described in official estimates, compared with those who had no conflicts of interest.
The authors conclude that academics should declare these ties and journalists should report them.
Nov 11 J Epidemiol Community Health study
IDSA to launch new open-access journal in 2014
The Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) announced plans to launch a new peer-reviewed, open-access journal called Open Forum Infectious Diseases (OFID) early in 2014 with the aim of covering a wide range of research.
"OFID will provide a global forum for the rapid publication of clinical, translational and basic research findings in a fully open access, online journal environment," with all content freely accessible, the IDSA said in a press release yesterday. The journal will focus on the intersection of biomedical science and clinical practice and especially on knowledge that offers the potential to improve patient care.
The journal will consider articles directly submitted to it and articles passed along by two other IDSA journals, Clinical Infectious Diseases and the Journal of Infectious Diseases, the statement said. The publication also will offer a special track for material from IDSA fellows, and members of IDSA and the HIV Medicine Association will receive discounts on article-processing fees.
The publication will be edited by Paul Sax, MD, clinical director in the Division of Infectious Diseases at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston and a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, the IDSA said. Sax's research has focused mainly on HIV, while his hospital work has dealt with infectious diseases in general.
"The online-publication model offers almost limitless opportunities for innovation, which should fulfill the goal of increasing engagement with contributors and readers," Sax commented in the release. For example, he proposes to feature not only research papers, but also diverse images, interviews with authors, downloadable podcasts, and videos.
Nov 11 IDSA press release
