Pneumonia emerges giant killer in Odisha, State 5th in death toll

Bhubaneswar: Here is a health alert for Odisha. Respiratory diseases are seemingly having their vice-like grip over the State. While pneumonia has emerged as a giant killer in the State since 2014, Acute Respiratory Infection (ARI) topped in cases.

The grip is quite telling as Odisha figured 5th in country in pneumonia-related mortalities in year 2018.  

As per the recently released report National Health Profile - 2019, a total of 279 succumbed to pneumonia in 2018. The toll in 2017 was 274.

A trend analysis of the respiratory diseases in the State shows while the ARI cases went up from 10 lakh in 2009 to touch 23.4 lakh in 2017, the pneumonia cases rose to 24,827 in 2017.

The good sign is while ARI cases in 2018 dipped to 17.9 lakh, pneumonia cases dropped to 17,934 in 2018.

However, the ominous portend is, though, cases recorded a decline, pneumonia mortalities posted a marginal rise in 2018.   

Moreover, the worrying fact about pneumonia is the case fatality rate (number of cases turning fatal) in the State is second highest in country after Tamil Nadu.

Odisha recorded a total of 17,934 pneumonia cases in 2018, and the mortalities in the year stood at 279. Tamil Nadu recorded around 6,000 fewer cases than Odisha but topped the country with 757 deaths.

The above analysis shows while the State was able to control the cases and mortalities in malaria and diarrhoea, the same was not conspicuous in the case of respiratory diseases.

The gender divide shows men in Odisha are seemingly more vulnerable to the respiratory diseases than women. Case and mortality wise, the toll count of males are higher than females. Men look doubly vulnerable to pneumonia and ARI as they have weaker lung profile, thanks to smoking.

What is Pneumonia? Pneumonia, most commonly caused by a bacteria called Streptococcus pneumoniae, is an infection that inflames the air sacs in one or both lungs. The air sacs may fill with fluid or pus (purulent material), causing cough with phlegm or pus, fever, chills, and difficulty breathing.

However, as per medical science, pneumonia can also be caused by organisms like viruses and fungi

Pneumonia is life-threatening for infants, young children, people older than age 65, and people with health problems or weakened immune systems.

The prescription: Odisha government has to urgently implement the free pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV) launched in May this year in the country by the Union Health Ministry. The State has to avail the campaign to curb high infant and U-5 mortality rate.