Cape Town - Babies of smoking mothers are more likely to be born prematurely and have extremely low birth weight, and are more prone to pneumonia, than those of non-smoking mothers.
That is the finding of a UCT lung health study.
The results were presented by UCT researcher Dr Dave le Roux at Red Cross Children’s Hospital to mark World Pneumonia Day recently.
The R53-million study is tracking 500 newborns in the Drakenstein region to identify the causes of pneumonia.
Pneumonia, a major cause of death among children under five, accounts for about 2 million deaths annually.
At the Red Cross Children’s Hospital in 2009, nearly 1 700 children under one year were admitted with pneumonia, with 800 aged between one year and five years.
Almost 900 children were admitted to Paarl Hospital with pneumonia in the same year.
UCT researchers compared two clinics in the Drakenstein area – one with over 40 percent of smoking mothers and another with 5 percent.
Preliminary results showed that a larger percentage of newborn babies born of smokers were delivered prematurely, had extremely low birth weight and had more episodes of pneumonia compared to those of non-smokers.
Professor Heather Zar, head of paediatrics at UCT and at Red Cross Children’s Hospital, said pneumonia killed more children than HIV/TB and malaria combined. The Western Cape had the lowest pneumonia-related mortality rate at 13 percent. - Cape Argus