India tops in childhood flu-linked pneumonia deaths
Published: Friday, Nov 11, 2011, 20:52 IST
Place: New Delhi | Agency: IANS
About one in every four infants who die from flu-related pneumonia is an Indian, says new research by the University of Edinburgh published Friday.
The study was led by the varsity and involved 47 researchers from 14 countries. Data from high-income and developing countries was reviewed.
India is the world leader for pneumonia mortality in under-five children contributing about a fourth of the global pneumonia deaths, said the study's leader Harish Nair of the varsity's Centre for Population Health Sciences and the Public Health Foundation of India.
"We think that until the widespread implementation of an effective influenza vaccine is achievable, reliable provision of antibiotics and oxygen therapy will substantially reduce mortality associated with flu," he added.
The estimates were based on influenza and pneumonia data from Ballabgarh in north Indian state of Haryana.
According to the study, annually, more than 3.7 lakh Indian children under the age of five die as a result of pneumonia and as many as seven percent of those die after contracting flu.
90 million cases of seasonal flu occur in under-five children each year globally and 20 million of these are flu-related pneumonia resulting in 1 million hospital admissions, said the study.
Although about 6,000 flu-related pneumonia deaths occur in hospitals, as many as three times this number could be occurring at home, researchers estimate.
The data used in the study suggests that the extent of the flu epidemic and associated pneumonia deaths could vary widely each year - within India and the rest of the world.
With vaccines being available for the common bacterial causes of childhood pneumonia, the bacterial pneumonia rates have started to decline, the study says.
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Indias most striking feature is its diversity. The countrys population of about 1.2 billion people is composed of several ethnic groups, speaking more than 1,000 languages and following six major religions. With an annual population growth rate of 1.4 per cent, India is projected to become the most populous country in the world by 2035.
With 33 per cent of the worlds poor people, 41.6 per cent of Indias population lives on less than US$1.25 a day. Based on the countrys new official poverty lines, 42 per cent of people in rural areas and 26 per cent of people in urban areas lived below the poverty line in 2004/05. Official poverty estimates for 2009/10 are not yet available, but preliminary estimates suggest that the combined all-India poverty rate was 32 per cent, compared with 37 per cent in 2004/05.
India ranks 134 out of 187 countries on the United Nations Development Programmes 2011 Human Development Index a comparative measure of life expectancy, literacy, education and standards of living for countries worldwide.
A total of 72 per cent of Indias population lives in rural areas, and 10 per cent of rural households are reported to be landless. Agricultural wage earners, smallholder farmers and casual workers in the non-farm sector constitute the bulk of poor rural people. Within these categories, women and tribal communities are the most deprived. About 300 million young people ages 13 to 35 live in rural areas, and most of them are forced to migrate seasonally or permanently, without the skills and competencies required by the modern economy that India is rapidly becoming.
Poverty is deepest among members of scheduled castes and tribes in the country's rural areas. On the map of poverty in India, the poorest areas are in parts of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Orissa, Chattisgarh and West Bengal.
Large numbers of India's poorest people live in the country's semi-arid tropical region. In this area, shortages of water and recurrent droughts impede the transformation of agriculture that the Green Revolution achieved elsewhere. There is also a high incidence of poverty in flood-prone areas, such as those extending from eastern Uttar Pradesh to the Assam plains, and especially in northern Bihar. Poverty affects tribal people in forest areas, where loss of entitlement to resources has made them even poorer. In coastal fishing communities, peoples living conditions are deteriorating because of environmental degradation, stock depletion and vulnerability to natural disasters.
Despite recent economic growth, poverty levels have not been reduced at the same pace. Poor rural people continue to live with inadequate physical and social infrastructure, poor access to services, and a highly stratified and hierarchical social structure, characterized by inequalities in assets, status and power.
