Study: Pneumonia responsible for more child deaths

By ZACHERY PER
Pneumonia is responsible for the highest childhood morbidity and mortality in Papua New Guinea apart from diarrhoea and malaria.
Gerard Saleu, a senior researcher with the pneumococcal conjugate vaccine research group of the Papua New Guinea Institute of Medical Research (PNGIMR), revealed this during a presentation on World Pneumonia Day at the IMR in Goroka, Eastern Highlands.
Saleu said studies on acute respiratory infections, especially pneumonia, had progressed over the past 40 years and PNG played a leading role in research and clinical advances into the disease.
He said pneumonia was first found to be the main cause of hospital admissions to the Angau Memorial Hospital in Lae, Morobe, in 1967.
A pneumonia ward was set up at the hospital and was the stepping stone to continuous investigation into the disease.It was then recommended to have a regional acute respiratory infections monitoring laboratory in the Asia-Pacific region to monitor its causes.
The pneumonia research base set up in Madang and Tari became the field site for surveillance on acute respiratory infections following the 1969 flu outbreak that killed hundreds of people in the Tari basin.
The model in Tari was adapted to Asaro valley, Eastern Highlands, for the work that followed.
Two publications that appeared in The Nature and The New England Journal of Medicine in 1971 from PNG became the first publications on penicillin resistance by certain strains of the pneumonia germ.
“We are working on the introduction of one of two vaccines, the 10 or the 13 valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine to protect children at an early age from illness and death due
to pneumonia,” Saleu said. “The national government will introduce this vaccine to all children around the country in 2013.” Saleu thanked the Eastern and Southern highlands divisions of health and his research colleagues, partners and contributors in the past and present for their great work into pneumonia research.
He thanked PNGIMR for funding and coordination. 
Guests at the special occasion were Goroka General Hospital paediatrician Dr Ilomo Hwaihwanje, Dr Paul Wali and Dr Casparia Mond.Hwaihwanje said laboratory evidence helped paediatricians like him choose the right antibiotics to treat pneumonia in young children.
“Much has been done but pneumonia morbidity is still high. Your (IMR) research is more important for us clinicians. “If we work hand-in-hand, we will see good results,” he said.