According to the data of 2022 of the World Health Organization, the death toll from Kovid-19 has reached 1 crore 50 lakhs in the whole world. But you should know that we have seen more serious consequences than a dangerous disease like Corona. During the 20th century, the world was fighting a disease like smallpox.
In 1796, when the smallpox vaccine was discovered, it seemed that the world would be able to breathe smallpox-free open air, but the truth was different. Similar is the story of diseases like tetanus, pneumonia, malaria. The death toll from the disease is shocking.
Smallpox is the only disease that has been completely eradicated. This disease is caused by the variola virus. However, it was smallpox that led to the discovery of vaccination.
In the 20th century alone, some 300 million people were killed by the smallpox virus. The historical death toll was so great that it is often compared to the Black Plague. The worldwide vaccination program was launched in the 1970s after hundreds of years of efforts by scientists and public health practitioners. From this beginning, everyone expected that smallpox would be eradicated.
But like today, there was a lot of lack of awareness in the society regarding vaccination campaigns during that time. Many people believed that getting vaccinated is a risky job. At the same time, religiously also, on a large scale, the critics considered interference in the divine plans. In the 19th century, anti-Semitic racial groups in Germany also claimed that vaccines were being used to exterminate the German people.
The World Health Organization started the first smallpox eradication campaign after the introduction of the smallpox vaccine. It hoped to achieve 80 per cent vaccine coverage in each country.
Achieving this target proved difficult due to shortages in vaccine supply and health infrastructure, especially in underdeveloped countries. In 1966, smallpox was confined to just 33 countries as an endemic disease. The last smallpox disease emerged in Somalia in 1977. Three years later, the World Health Organization declared smallpox eradicated.
The long history of smallpox deaths in Europe
< p>In European countries, 1000 citizens died of smallpox from 1774 to 1900. In the 1900s, about 7 out of 1,000 Swedes who contracted smallpox died. The Franco-Prussian War of 1871 was going on. At that time, countries like Austria and Belgium did not make smallpox vaccination mandatory. Large numbers of smallpox deaths were reported from both countries after 1875. Other European countries were seeing a decrease in smallpox deaths by then.
How many cases of smallpox in different countries
< p>The World Health Organization (WHO) launched the Rapid Smallpox Eradication Program in 1970. By then smallpox had been virtually eradicated from most countries in Western Europe and North America. While South America, Africa and Asia, especially India, recorded a large decrease in the death toll.
Pneumonia
World Health Organization statistics According to WHO, 2.5 million people died of pneumonia in 2019. About a third of those who died were children under the age of 5. That is, pneumonia became the biggest cause of death of children under five years of age. According to the statistics given by UNICEF, a child dies every 39 seconds. Pneumonia kills about 1.3 million children under the age of 5 every year worldwide.
Pneumonia can be caused by bacteria, viruses or fungi. In this disease one or both the lungs become inflamed. Which is called alveoli. In a patient suffering from pneumonia, the alveoli are filled with pus and fluid. This causes great difficulty in breathing.
According to WHO, 15 percent of all child deaths in 2017 were due to pneumonia. In the last three decades, there has been a significant reduction in the number of children dying of pneumonia. In 1990, more than two million children died of pneumonia every year. By 2017, that number had fallen by almost two-thirds.
The WHO research shows that children in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia are most likely to die from pneumonia. In 2019, 5 countries – India, Nigeria, Pakistan, Democratic Republic of Congo and Ethiopia – had the highest number of child deaths due to pneumonia. Pneumonia has also been described as a disease of the poor.
A 2022 report by UNICEF states that at least one child dies of pneumonia every 45 seconds. Almost all of these deaths are preventable.
How can pneumonia be prevented?
Malnutrition is the biggest cause of pneumonia in children Is. Malnourished children are more likely to be hospitalized due to pneumonia. And it is 15 times more likely to die.
Indoor air pollution and secondhand smoke increase the risk of pneumonia. Suffered from pneumonia in 2017 Symptoms of indoor air pollution were seen in 29 percent of the children. Outdoor air pollution was found to be responsible for 18 percent of all deaths. Exposure also increases the risk of pneumonia in children. According to the UNICEF report, when a child infected with HIV gets AIDS, their immune system is weakened. Such children are also at increased risk of pneumonia.
Only 1% of all child pneumonia deaths in India in 2010 were directly attributed to HIV. These figures were 64% in Eswatini and 62% in Lesotho, for a total of 17% of HIV in Africa.
People aged 70 years and older are also at risk of pneumonia. In 2017 Pneumonia killed more than 300,000 elderly people due to pneumonia.
Smoking caused 150,000 deaths among elderly people with pneumonia. On the other hand, due to exposure to secondhand smoke, There have been 73,000 deaths. Figures are as of 2019.
Pneumonia vaccine
Pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV) prevents pneumonia. PCV vaccine is given to children below the age of 24 months. This vaccine has 85% effectiveness against pneumonia. The second vaccine is DTP3. DTP3 is more prevalent.
If PCV13 coverage in low-income countries were to reach the coverage of the DTP3 vaccine, one death per 399,000 children could be prevented. As of 2009, pneumonia was the eighth leading cause of death in children in the United States. According to the health department, a child is dying every two hours in India’s Madhya Pradesh due to pneumonia. That is, about 13,029 children under five years of age die every year from pneumonia.
Tetanus
Tetanus is a bacterial disease. In this, pain starts from the jaws and comes in the muscles. This affects the movement of the whole body. About 11 percent of reported cases of tetanus in recent years have been severe.
In 2017, 38,000 people died of tetanus worldwide. Nearly half (49%) of those who died were children under the age of five. The vaccine against tetanus controlled the disease on a large scale. As a result, cases and deaths from tetanus have decreased by 89 percent since 1990.
It is caused by a toxin-producing bacteria called Clostridium tetani. In 1990, 314,000 people died due to tetanus, whereas in 2019 there were less than 35,000 deaths. Means a reduction of 87% was recorded.
Most cases of tetanus 5 years In children under the age of
Today most cases of tetanus occur in children under the age of 5 years. Although there has been a decline in cases. The number of child deaths from tetanus in 2017 rose to 49 percent, up from 76 percent in 1990.
Most new cases of tetanus today come from South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. Worldwide All tetanus cases coming from these two areas account for 82% of the total cases. Is. Similarly, 77% of all tetanus deaths occur in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa.
New cases of tetanus by country< /p>
In 1990, Nepal, Eritrea, Pakistan and Afghanistan had the highest rates of tetanus in the world. All cases above 70 per 100,000 people came from these countries. As of 2017, only two countries, South Sudan and Somalia, had rates of tetanus cases greater than 10 per 100,000 people.
Vaccination prevents tetanus
Today we have an effective vaccine against tetanus. The vaccine is known as DTP and contains ingredients that protect against not only tetanus but also diphtheria and pertussis.
Tetanus decline with vaccination coverage< /p>
Before 1980, with the help of vaccination programs, there was a decline in the cases of tetanus in developed countries. According to WHO, in 1980 there was a decrease of 10 percent in the total cases of tetanus. The Global Burden of Disease Project has estimated the actual number (not just confirmed) of tetanus cases since 1990. Both data sets agree that tetanus cases decreased as more people were vaccinated.
Global tetanus vaccine coverage increased from 38 percent to 77 percent between 1983 and 1990. . This has increased to 86 percent in 2015.
Malaria
Malaria is a disease that is spread from person to person by infected mosquitoes. Plasmodium falciparum is the most dangerous parasite. Their bite causes coma and death in malaria.
The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 558,000 people died due to malaria in 2019. The Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) puts this estimate at 643,000.
Most of the victims are children. It is one of the leading causes of child mortality. Malaria accounted for one in twelfth child deaths in 2017.
WHO estimated
WHO introduced global records of the number of people who died of malaria since the beginning of the 21st century. Between 2000 and 2015, the global death rate decreased by about 40%. 896,000 deaths in 2000, In 2015, 562,000 were registered. Since then there has been a decrease in deaths due to malaria.
Africa is the most affected by malaria among the countries around the world. In 2019, 96% of global malaria deaths occurred in the African continent. Deaths in Africa have declined significantly since 2000, but are still among the highest among countries worldwide.
IHME malaria death estimates< /p>
Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) presented the data of malaria deaths since 1990. In 1990 the deaths rose to about 850,000. peaked at about 965,000 in 2004, and then declined to about 650,000 in 2019.
These figures are higher than those of the WHO.
Malaria by age Malaria deaths
The age group most vulnerable to malaria deaths globally are children under the age of five. Malaria deaths among 5-year-olds were 55 percent in 2019.
