CAIRO - The World Health Organisation (WHO) has said that 15 per cent of children below the age of five years are likely to die of pneumonia in Egypt each year, a report warned Sunday. The WHO called on the Government to exert urgent efforts that can prevent, protect against and treat pneumonia in children, the report, issued after a recent health conference, said. It said that pneumonia was the world's leading infectious killer of young children, took the lives of nearly 1.8 million children under age five every year. The report added that 15 per cent of Egyptian children were likely to die of pneumonia each year unless the Ministry of Health takes more preventive measures against this killer disease . "Safe and effective vaccines should exist to provide protection against the primary causes of pneumonia deaths," the report said at the end of the conference, which was attended by 200 doctors from the Middle East and Africa. “Every 20 seconds, a child dies from pneumonia. That's 4,300 young lives lost every day, and nearly all of those are children from developing countries. This tragedy can be prevented," the report said.
