Mr Isaac Ampomah, Chief Executive Officer, Concern Health, in a statement to mark World Pneumonia Day, called for increased awareness on the necessity to shape the vaccine market to ensure sustainability of the vaccine in immunization programmes.

The World Pneumonia Day is marked on November 12 each year.

Concern Health, together with its  partners  Niyel  in  Senegal and  CSOs  working  around  Child  Health  in  Ghana  and  Africa, said there was also the need to encourage exclusive breastfeeding for six months, adding that continued breastfeeding with appropriate complementary feeding would reduce the onset and severity of diarrhoea and pneumonia.

Pneumonia remain major killers of young  children and together with  Diarrhoea , the diseases account for 29% of all deaths of children under five years of age and result in the loss of two million young lives each year.

The statement said the burden placed by pneumonia and diarrhoea on families was huge, while weak health systems aggravate existing inequalities.It called for identifying children at greatest risk and targeting them with interventions of proven efficacy to close the gap.

“Much more work is still required to make a meaningful impact. People from poor communities are at highest risk of Pneumonia.  Every child, regardless of where they are born, deserves access to life-saving vaccines and medicines,” the statement said.

Globally more than two million children under five years die from pneumonia annually with a child dying every 20 seconds.

The disease, which affects the lungs as a result of bacterial, viral or fungal infections, presents symptoms in the form of cough, fever and can make breathing difficult for patients and causes needless suffering and stress on both patients and their families.

Despite this inspiring news, most people were still unaware of its overwhelming death-toll and this has led to its priority being over shadowed on the global health agenda. Pneumonia diseases get little attention even in the media, the statement noted.

Moreover, the vaccine against Pneumonia remained one of the most expensive, making its sustainability a great challenge for countries that were transitioning from GAVI’s support. Therefore, there was the need to advocate to African governments to honour their commitments to Immunization.

The Statement said although Ghana had made a lot of progress, much more needed to be done to end the under five deaths from pneumonia.“As  we  commemorate  today  the  12th  of  November  as  the  World  Pneumonia  Day   and  in  commitment  to  the  Global  Action  Plan  for  Pneumonia  and  Diarrhoeal,  lets  all  collectively   as  the  nations  of  the  World  and  Ghana continue  the  resilience  in  fighting  preventable  death.

“Let’s ensure that the WHO and UNICEF integrated Global action plan for Pneumonia and Diarrhoea,  which (GAPPD) aims to accelerate Pneumonia control with a combination of interventions to Protect, Prevent, and Treat Pneumonia in children are  enforced,” the statement added.