Lucknow, Jan 10 (IANS): Children in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar are nearly twice at risk of succumbing to pneumonia after being discharged from the hospital and this is mainly due to lack of medical follow-up.

While the national in-hospital mortality rate among children suffering from pneumonia is 1.9 per cent, over 3 per cent succumb to the disease within three months of returning home.

A recent study conducted at KGMU has unveiled a concerning trend.

Published in Lancet Asia in December under the title 'High post-discharge mortality in children with severe pneumonia in two states of Northern India', the study highlights vulnerability of children even after overcoming severe pneumonia.

The study, led by former head of paediatrics department at KGMU Prof Shally Awasthi and Dr AK Pandey of the same department, tracked 934 children under the age of five who had been hospitalised for severe pneumonia across a network of 117 hospitals in Lucknow, Etawah, Patna and Darbhanga.

Shally said, "We found that infants, children with congenital heart disease, malnourished and those residing in rural areas were more susceptible to post-discharge mortality."