Zar Heather Jessica, Barnett Whitney, Myer Landon, Nicol Mark P
Department of Paediatrics and Child Health, Red Cross War Memorial Children's Hospital and Medical Research Council Unit on Child and Adolescent Health, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Cape Town, South Africa.
S Afr Med J. 2016 Jun 15;106(7):642-3. doi: 10.7196/SAMJ.2016.v106i7.11108.
Advances in immunisation, improvements in socioeconomic status and effective HIV prevention and treatment strategies have reduced the population burden of childhood pneumonia and severe disease. However, pneumonia remains the major single cause of death in children outside the neonatal period, causing approximately 1 million deaths annually, or 15% of an estimated 6.3 million deaths in children aged under 5 years. This burden is disproportionately high in low- and middle-income countries and in Africa, where almost 50% of deaths in children aged under 5 years occur, despite African children comprising only 25% of live births globally. Pneumonia incidence and severity are highest in the first year of life, especially in the first 6 months.
免疫接种的进步、社会经济地位的改善以及有效的艾滋病毒预防和治疗策略减轻了儿童肺炎和重症疾病的人口负担。然而，肺炎仍然是新生儿期以外儿童死亡的主要单一原因，每年造成约100万例死亡，占估计630万5岁以下儿童死亡人数的15%。在低收入和中等收入国家以及非洲，这一负担尤其沉重，尽管非洲儿童仅占全球活产儿的25%，但几乎50%的5岁以下儿童死亡发生在这些地区。肺炎发病率和严重程度在生命的第一年最高，尤其是在前6个月。
