Context

Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare launched SAANS, a campaign aimed at reducing child mortality due to pneumonia.

About

• SAANS, short for ‘Social Awareness and Action to Neutralise Pneumonia Successfully
• It is launched to mobilise people to protect children from pneumonia, and train health personnel and other stakeholders to provide prioritised treatment to control the disease.
• As per Health Management Information System (HMIS) data, under-five mortality rate in the country is 37 per 1000 live births, of which 5.3 deaths are caused due to pneumonia.
• The government aims to achieve a target of reducing pneumonia deaths among children to less than three per 1,000 live births by 2025
• The HMIS data for 2018-19 ranked Gujarat second in the number of child deaths due to pneumonia, after Madhya Pradesh.

Mandate of the campaign

• Under the campaign, a child suffering from pneumonia can be treated with pre-referral dose of anti-biotic amoxicillin by ASHA workers.
• Health and wellness centres can use pulse oximeter (device to monitor oxygen saturation) to identify low oxygen levels in the blood of a child, and if required, treat him by use of oxygen cylinders.
• A mass awareness campaign will also be launched about the effective solutions for pneumonia prevention like breast feeding, and age appropriate complementary feeding.
• A web portal for home-based child care is also been launched.

Fact Box: All about Pneumonia

• Pneumonia is an infection in one or both lungs. Bacteria, viruses, and fungi cause it.
• The infection causes inflammation in the air sacs in your lungs, which are called alveoli. The alveoli fill with fluid or pus, making it difficult to breathe.
• The germs that cause pneumonia are contagious. This means they can spread from person to person.
• Both viral and bacterial pneumonia can spread to others through inhalation of airborne droplets from a sneeze or cough.
• You can also get these types of pneumonia by coming into contact with surfaces or objects that are contaminated with pneumonia-causing bacteria or viruses.
• Oral antibiotics can treat most cases of bacterial pneumonia.

Types of pneumonia

Pneumonia can also be classified according to where or how it was acquired.

• Hospital-acquired pneumonia (HAP): This type of bacterial pneumonia is acquired during a hospital stay. It can be more serious than other types, as the bacteria involved may be more resistant to antibiotics.
• Community-acquired pneumonia (CAP): Community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) refers to pneumonia that’s acquired outside of a medical or institutional setting.
• Ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP): When people who are using a ventilator get pneumonia, it’s called VAP.