Progress

Caregivers often fail to recognize key symptoms of pneumonia

Caregivers play a critical role in recognizing pneumonia's symptoms and immediately seeking appropriate care for children who are ill. Yet, even though pneumonia is the leading killer of children in the developing world, too few caregivers know the two telltale symptoms of pneumonia: fast breathing and difficult breathing.

MICS provide information on caregivers' knowledge of pneumonia's symptoms, and results from 55 surveys during the period 2000–2006 show that these common symptoms of pneumonia are not widely recognized – with only about 1 in 5 caregivers recognizing these two danger signs across reviewed surveys.

Only half of children with pneumonia taken to appropriate care

Prompt treatment with effective antibiotics is critical for reducing deaths from pneumonia. Yet, only about half of children (58 per cent) with pneumonia in the developing world (excluding China) are taken to an appropriate health-care provider. The highest levels of care-seeking behaviour for pneumonia are found in the Middle East and North Africa (76 per cent), East Asia and the Pacific (excluding China, 66 per cent) and South Asia (64 per cent), while sub-Saharan Africa lags behind at 43 per cent.

More than half of all children with suspected pneumonia are taken to appropriate health providers
Percentage of children under five with suspected pneumonia who are taken to an appropriate health provider, by region (2005–2008)

* Excludes China

Source: UNICEF global databases, 2009.

In addition, limited data show that there has been little progress in expanding case management for major childhood illnesses across Africa, where the burden of these diseases is greatest. The lack of any significant progress in the case management of pneumonia, diarrhoeal diseases and malaria underlines the urgent need to strengthen the integrated community-based treatment of childhood diseases within the overall health system.