Nagpur: “Around 14 children die every hour due to pneumonia in India and Community Acquired Pneumonia (CAP) is a leading cause of under-five mortality in the country,” said Prof Shally Awasthi, Paediatric Pulmonologist and senior faculty in King George’s Medical University, Lucknow during a plenary session held at the 108th Indian Science Congress at RTMNU Campus in Nagpur on Thursday.
Prof Awasthi delivered a talk on ‘Child pneumonia’. Prof Awasthi shared a study that she conducted on child pneumonia in Northern India. “Pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV) has been recommended by World Health Organisation (WHO) to prevent CAP and has been introduced in a phased manner in the national immunisation programme of India since 2017,” informed Prof Awasthi during the session.
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“We conducted the study with 500 pneumonia exposed children and 1,500 unexposed children in the country. In this study we found that 25% children who took this vaccine are unexposed to pneumonia,” said Prof Awasthi. Thereafter, DrSheela Mishra, Professor, Department of Statistics, University of Lucknow talked on ‘Science and Technology from Sustainability and Gender Perspective’. Dr Mishra, in her speech, talked about mental health of children in the modern world. Global warming causes mental disorders all over the world.
“One in every five Americans and one in every five children will experience mental illness in their lifetime. Suicide is the second leading cause of death among people ages 15-34 in the United State and the situation is degrading in India also,” said Dr Mishra during the event. “There is a need to impart Indian culture among our children to reduce such mental illnesses because culture and philosophy join people to nature and it plays an important role in sustainable environment for all,” said Dr Mishra.
Prof Sanjeev Rastogi, Professor, State Ayurvedic College and Hospital, Lucknow talked on ‘Routing Ayurveda Principals through Science’. Prof Rastogi, in his speech, said, “Ayurveda is that ancient science which is not apart from modern medical science. Ayurveda can be translated into mainstream modern science. Even Ayurveda is a perfect example of divergent evolution of modern science,” said Prof Rastogi during the session. “When you look at the theory of origin of life from the biological point of view, it is almost similar to what Ayurveda perceives,” he added. The programme was presided over by Giridhar Agrawal.
