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Special Advisor to the President on Health Matters Dr Timothy Stamps is calling on parents to take steps urgently to ensure that all children are assessed and immunised against pneumonia to help reduce childhood deaths. Dr Stamps made the call during commemorations to mark the World Pneumonia and Prematurity Day in Harare last week. He said Zimbabwean children were succumbing to viral, bacterial and fungal pneumonia due to a combination of factors that included HIV, measles infection, malnutrition, indoor air pollution and exposure to cigarette smoke.

Globally, pneumonia claims about 1,2 million lives each year in children under the age of five. Over 90 percent of these deaths are in sub-Saharan Africa. – The Herald.