Firm Packages New Drug For Pneumonia

About 1.5  million persons die yearly of pneumonia  related disease, experts have said, quoting a statistics from the World Health Organisation (WHO).

The medical experts made the figures public at the formal launching of “Prevenar 13”, a new  pneumonia   fighting drug packaged by Pfizer Nigeria in Port Harcourt Thursday.

Top padaetrician and lecturer in the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital (UPTH), Prof. Alice Nte, while speaking on the  topic, “Burden of pneumococal Disease in Nigerian Children”, said  WHO ranks the disease as the second top killer  of children before the age of five.

Aside India, Prof Nte,  while citing WHO  statistics  noted that Nigeria is rated third in the area of high incidence with about 300,000 to 500,000 deaths yearly.

Warning that the country was heading for disaster if nothing is done, the child health care expert declared, “Nigeria is in a bad shape and we lack the necessary machineries to tackle it”.

Prof. Nte called for the need to raise the vaccination of children against the infection and also tasked pharmaceutical firms  to conduct more research on how to tackle the menace.

Similarly, a Professor in the University of Lagos College of Medicine, Prof Sade Ogunshola, said so far studies have indicated that there are about three types of pneumonococal  serotypes.

She noted that amongst the deadliest is serotype 14, which is responsible for 25 per cent fatality rates  both among children and adults.

She expressed worry that despite the prevalence  of high profile antibiotics, the viral infection has mutated to resist  drugs, but believed that Prevenar 13 could help solve the  menace.

In the same vein, another medical expert, Prof. Clement Ezechukwu speaking on the topic, “Challenges of Anti-biotics Resistance in the Management of Pneunmococal disease,” revealed that a lot of viral infections have started resisting antibiotics.

He blamed the problem on the ability of microorganisms to evolve in order to ???  attacks by lethal drugs.

In his words, “there are several causes of pneumonia   but if action can be taken to curb strep pneumonia   much has been achieved”.

He recommended the need for early diagnosis as a means of checking attacks and deaths resulting from pneumonia.