According to GMA News Network Pneumonia topped the list of 20 illnesses that the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. paid for in claims annually, costing at least 2 billion pesos in 2010, a leading infectious disease specialist said Wednesday.

The ranking is based on the number of claims filed by patients for insurance payments in the government-owned and -controlled corporation. In the first half of 2011 alone, PhilHealth had spent at least 1.2 billion pesos in pneumonia claims, according to Dr. Anna Lisa T. Ong Lim, a pediatrics professor at the University of the Philippines – College of Medicine.

In a news conference, she said pneumonia is one of the top five leading causes of mortality in the Philippines. It is one of the diseases caused by Streptococcus pneumonia or pneumococcus, a type of bacteria that is also responsible for meningitis, sinusitis, and bronchitis.

Lim said it makes “good economic sense” for the government to spend an equivalent amount in claims paid by Philhealth for pneumonia to purchase vaccines that will prevent the disease and save more lives, especially those of children and the elderly.

Among children between 1-5 years old, pneumococcal diseases can lead to death, paralysis, mental retardation, seizures, learning disabilities, and hearing loss, Lim said.

Lulu C. Bravo, also a professor at the UP–College of Medicine, told reporters that pneumococcal diseases account for 4,500 deaths of Filipino children under 5 years old annually, according to World Health Organization studies.

“Pneumonia kills more than 2 million children each year worldwide, more than AIDS, malaria, and measles combined,” Bravo added.

Among the 15 countries with the highest number of childhood pneumonia globally, the Philippines ranks No. 10 with 3 million cases, she said. Number 9 was Congo and number 11 was Afghanistan, Lim said.

“The impact on the economy and health system by pneumonia whether in developed or developing countries is the same,” Lim added.

The Department of Health is expected to start initially vaccinating children of the poorest families within the year, with the campaign expanded in the next two years to cover the entire population.

The DOH’s Expanded Program of Immunization for children under five years old covers the following diseases: BCG, diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, Hepatitis B, influenza, measles, mumps, rubella, and polio