With childhood pneumonia posing as the major cause of childhood morbidity and mortality contributing to approximately 40 per cent of all childhood illnesses in India, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has decided to embark on research on different areas of childhood pneumonia.

Earlier, the ICMR had carried out a workshop in child pneumonia in collaboration with PATH (Programme for Appropriate Technology for Health) to identify different research areas in acute respiratory infections (ARI) and childhood pneumonia. The workshop was organised as ARI and childhood pneumonias are the major causes of childhood morbidity and mortality in India contributing to approximately 40 per cent of all childhood illnesses in India, and approximately 30 per cent of all childhood deaths.

In the broad area of clinical and basic research, the study will be carried out to estimate disease burden due to ARI/ pneumonia in under five children in the country; generate region specific data on etiological agents causing pneumonia and the morbidity pattern; explore the feasibility of involving informal sector and the Ayush professionals in community case management; develop and test simple low cost diagnostic technologies for detection of pathogens causing pneumonia; and test and validate biomarkers for diagnosis of pneumonia.

Besides, research will be focusing on developing innovative low cost tools/technologies for easy to use in the field for diagnosis and case management like respiratory rate counter; mobile, miniaturized pulse oximetry; video conferencing for detection of chest indrawing; wheeze-detecting instruments; exploring emergency transport systems, fitted with oxygen and pulse oximetry; and oxygen concentrators for resource poor settings.

In the area of disease burden studies and newer vaccines, the proposed study will stress on establishing surveillance for all communicable diseases including pneumonia in an integrated manner; design community-based studies at multiple sites to assess the burden of pneumonia attributable to different etiological agents - both bacterial and viral; establish the magnitude of burden of pneumonia due to household air pollution at multiple sites; and examine issues like vaccine failures (non-responders), alternate vaccine schedules and innovations that can potentially improve the immunisation programme in the country.

Scientists in regular employment in the medical colleges, postgraduate institutions, universities, recognized research institutes and development laboratories and NGOs are eligible to participate in the study for which the ICMR has invited research proposals.