KANO State Commissioner for Health, Dr Kabir Ibrahim Getso, has said available data indicates that Pneumonia disease claims the lives of over 170 children in the country annually.
The commissioner said the state recorded 650,000 cases of infected children annually, adding that there is the need to prevent the deadly disease so as to safe the lives of children in the state and the country in general.
Dr Getso said this during the inauguration of Pneumococal Conjugate Vaccine (PVC), adding that if the vaccine is effectively administered on children, by 2018, there would be a radical reduction in the death of children.
According to him, pneumonia is a deadly communal disease, adding that available data indicated that 800,000 children under the age of five years die yearly worldwide.
Dr Getso further said that pneumonia is a disease that is affecting everybody in society but children under the age of five and elderly were more affected.
This vaccine would be administered on children under the age of one, six, 10 and 14 weeks respectively, which indicated that children will have it three times in their lifetime,” he said.
and then