Health Ministry launches ‘SAANS’ campaign

Union Ministry for Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) launched SAANS: ‘Social Awareness and Action to Neutralise Pneumonia Successfully’ campaign to reduce child mortality due to pneumonia. Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan launched the campaign while inaugurating the 6th National Summit on Good, Replicable Practices and Innovations.

About SAANS campaign

Objective:

To reduce child mortality due to pneumonia

To mobilise people to protect children from pneumonia

To train health personnel and other stakeholders to provide prioritised treatment to control the disease

Mandate: Under the campaign, a child suffering from pneumonia can be treated with-

• Pre-referral dose of anti-biotic amoxicillin by Accredited Social Health Activist (ASHA) workers
• Health and wellness centres will use Pulse Oximeter (a device to monitor oxygen saturation) to identify low oxygen levels in blood of a child, and if required, treat him by use of oxygen cylinders.

Pneumonia contributes to around 15% deaths of children under five years of age annually, therefore, a mass awareness campaign will also be launched about effective solutions for pneumonia prevention such as breast feeding, and age appropriate complementary feeding. immunization, good quality air etc.

HMIS Data on Pneumonia

As per Health Management Information System (HMIS) data, a digital initiative by National Health Mission- Under-five mortality rate in India is 37 per 1000 live births, of which 5.3 deaths are caused due to pneumonia. However, the government aims to achieve a target of reducing pneumonia deaths among children to less than three per 1,000 live births by 2025.

HMIS data for 2018-19 ranked Madhya Pradesh as most number of child deaths due to pneumonia which was followed by Gujarat.

Month: Current Affairs - November, 2019