This Is IDAI's Recommendation To Protect Children From Pneumonia

An illustration of children protecting themselves from Pneumonia (Photo: Unsplash)

JAKARTA - Pneumonia transmission in children should be considered. Therefore, the Indonesian Pediatrician Association (IDAI) revealed a number of recommendations to protect children from the disease.

"Surveillance of respiratory system infections in children (including pneumonia) needs to be increased, including improvement of government facilities for the procurement of examination facilities to find out the germs that cause pneumonia in children, including Streptococcus pneumonia, RSV, Mycoplasma pneumonia, and others," said Head of IDAI Piprim Central Management Basarah Yanuarso quoting Antara.

Then, Piprim suggested that hospitals, clinics, and health centers in Indonesia need to analyze data on the number of patients/visitors and deaths due to respiratory infection/pneumonia from time to time, both inpatients, outpatients, and emergency hospital installations, so that they can be reported and anticipated early if a significant increase in the number of cases is found.

"Giving exclusive breast milk, complete vaccination, and high doses of vitamin A are very important to prevent infants and children from pneumonia," he said.

Furthermore, Piprim emphasized that the community needs to improve Clean and Healthy Lifestyle (PHBS), including the habit of washing hands and wearing masks.

Although the increase in the number of mysterious pneumonia cases caused by Mycoplasma pneumonia in China needs to be observed, watched out for, and followed up, he said this was unnecessary to cause panic in the community, because symptoms due to Mycoplasma pneumonia are the same as symptoms of pneumonia in general, even milder, and transmission is not as fast as the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19.

In line with this, the Director of Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases of the Indonesian Ministry of Health (Kemenkes) Imran Pambudi has appealed to the public not to panic in responding to the mysterious pneumonia outbreak that has occurred in China in recent times. "People remain calm, don't panic," he said.

To ensure that the community remains calm, the Ministry of Health has made a number of mitigation efforts to anticipate the outbreak of Mycoplasma pneumonia in Indonesia. One of them is by issuing Circular No. PM.03.01/C/4732/2023 concerning Vigilance of Mycopaplasma Pneumonia Incidents in Indonesia.