SAANS Campaign | 18 Nov 2019
Why in News
The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has launched a campaign in Gujarat named Social Awareness and Action to Neutralise Pneumonia Successfully (SAANS).
- The aim is to reduce child mortality due to pneumonia, which contributes to around 15% of deaths of children under the age of five annually.
Key Features
- To mobilise people to protect children from pneumonia, and train health personnel and other stakeholders to provide prioritised treatment to control the disease.
- A child suffering from pneumonia will be treated with a pre-referral dose of antibiotic amoxicillin by Accredited Social Health Activist (ASHA) workers.
- Pulse Oximeter (device to monitor oxygen saturation) will be used at the Health and Wellness Centre for identification of low oxygen levels in the blood of child and if required, the child can be treated by the use of oxygen cylinders.
- A mass awareness campaign will be launched about the effective solutions for pneumonia prevention like breastfeeding, age-appropriate complementary feeding and immunization etc.
Pneumonia
- Pneumonia is an infection that inflames the air sacs (alveoli) in one or both lungs. The air sacs may fill up with fluid or pus, causing symptoms such as a cough, fever, chills and trouble breathing.
- Agents: Many germs can cause pneumonia. The most common are bacteria and viruses in the air that humans breathe.
- It is preventable through vaccination.
- Vulnerable Population: Infants and young children, people older than age 65, and people with weak immune systems.
- The prevalence rate among Infants in India: Under-five mortality rate in the country is 37 per 1000 live births, of which 5.3 deaths are caused due to pneumonia.
- Step Taken by India:
- The government aims to achieve a target of reducing pneumonia deaths among children to less than three per 1,000 live births by 2025.
- In 2014, India launched ‘Integrated Action Plan for Prevention and Control of Pneumonia and Diarrhoea (IAPPD)’ to undertake collaborative efforts towards prevention of diarrhoea and Pneumonia related under-five deaths.