Flu Virus Precedes Pneumonia in Poor Countries

Developing countries, through their very nature, have very poor healthcare systems and coverage, therefore a large number of people dies from conditions that would merely inconvenience people in the developed world. Pneumonia is a good example of such a disease. In its basic forms, it is easily treated with antibiotics, but it can be fatal if left to develop. Now, in a new study, experts have determined that, in poor countries, the average influenza virus oftentimes facilitates the emergence and development of Streptococcus pneumoniae, or pneumococcus, especially in children.

Over recent years, a large number of hospital-based studies has been conducted in Hong Kong, India and Thailand. More than 12,000 people have been observed during the studies, of which 7,500 developed pneumonia while under observation. The researchers have paid special attention to a group of 5,000 children, less than five years old, whom they have followed for three years. The results have revealed that about 13 percent of the children tested have had signs of influenza-virus infections, Nature News reports.

“Tellingly, we found that two-thirds of these influenza-associated pneumonias occurred in very young children – those under two years old. That didn't surprise us because complications of influenza are known to occur more frequently in this age group,” Abdullah Brooks, an expert from the Johns Hopkins University (JHU), in Baltimore, Maryland, and the leader of the new research, explains. More details will be published in an upcoming issue of The Pediatric Infectious Disease Journal.

Pneumococcus or Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib) infections are the cause for more than 50 percent of all very severe or fatal pneumonia cases in children, the studies have also revealed. Over the last four years, some programs have started being set in place to counteract the bacteria's effects, and researchers are now looking for the agents that cause the other 50 percent of cases. However, the search may prove to take quite some time, experts say.

“There is a ragbag of possible agents, from other bacteria to viruses or mycobacteria. But influenza certainly seems to be important among these – we are also seeing significant involvement of influenza at this sort of rate in our preliminary studies here,” KEMRI Research Program scientist Anthony Scott says. KEMRI is funded by the Wellcome Trust, and is based in Kilifi, Kenya. “The goal of our vaccination programme is to reduce pneumonia deaths as much as possible, and most of these occur in the under-twos,” Brooks concludes.