The World Pneumonia Day Coalition includes representatives from the world’s leading health and humanitarian relief organizations, civil society organizations and faith based groups. These groups are coming together to coordinate activities ranging from public education campaigns and websites to athletic events, policy forums and formal resolutions and declarations across the globe to announce and commemorate the first-ever World Pneumonia Day slated for November 2, 2009.
Few Americans realize that pneumonia kills more young children than any other disease, but with the right approach, we can save lives right now.
“Pneumonia kills more children than any other illness—more than AIDS, malaria and measles combined. Over 2 million children die from pneumonia each year, accounting for almost 1 in 5 under-five deaths worldwide. Yet, little attention is paid to this disease.” UNICEF, 2006
“In the context of child survival strategies, countries should develop plans for controlling pneumonia. The key strategies for pneumonia control are: case management with Integrated Management of Childhood Illness at all levels; vaccination; improvement of nutrition/low birth weight; control of indoor air pollution; prevention and management of HIV infection.” Global Action Plan for the Prevention and Control of Pneumonia, 2007.
“Many Americans doubt whether foreign aid is effective, and it’s true that helping people is harder than it looks. Yet health programs have a particularly strong record (as do education and business-related initiatives like microfinance). One result of health campaigns is that the number of children dying by their fifth birthday has been cut in half since 1960, from 20 million annually to less than 10 million.
"Children with AIDS and malaria already have advocates, so anyone looking for a cause should grab pneumonia and run with it. Think of it not as a grim and depressing initiative, but as potentially a happy turnaround opportunity, for these kids’ lives can be so breathtakingly easy to save.” Nicholas Kristof in the New York Times, May 10, 2009.
Resources:
Learn more about this life-threatening illness, its prevention, and its treatment by exploring the links below:
Pneumonia: the forgotten killer of children
Pneumonia Quick Facts
Psst. Pneumonia. Pass it on.
World Pneumonia Day Coalition
The World Pneumonia Day Coalition is comprised of over 50 organizations including international NGO’s, faith-based groups, academic and medical institutions, professional societies, charitable and advocacy groups and developing country organizations. The Coalition receives technical support from the Centers for Disease Control and Unicef.
The list below is a partial list of World Pneumonia Day members.
* American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC)
* Antibiotic Consensus Society of Uganda (ACSU)
* Arab Pediatric Infectious Disease Society
* Best Shot Foundation
* Boston University School of Public Health Center for International Health and Development (CIHD)
* California Immunization Coalition (CIC)
* Centre for International Child Health (CICH), University of Melbourne
* Center for Vaccine Development-Mali (CVD-Mali)
* Centre National d’Appui à la lutte contre la Maladie (CNAM)
* Chinese Society of Pediatric Pulmonology
* Croatian Center for Global Health
* Destinee Charity Foundation
* The Earth Institute, Columbia University
* Episcopal Relief and Development
* GAVI Alliance
* GiveVaccines.org
* Global Action for Children (GAC)
* Global Science Academy (GSA), India
* Hedge Funds vs. Malaria and Pneumonia
* Hong Kong Pediatric Society
* Immunization Action Coalition
* International Rescue Committee (IRC)
* International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease (The Union)
* Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
* Jordan University Hospital (JUH)
* Jordan University Medical School, Division of Pediatric Infectious Disease
* The MacDella Cooper Foundation (MCF)
* MACS Initiative (Monitoring and Accelerate Child Survival Initiative)
* Millennium Villages Project
* Ministry of Health – Mali
* Ministry of Health – ARI Programme, Mali
* NYU School of Medicine, Department of Medical Parasitology
* The Paediatric Association of Nigeria
* Pediatric Association of Tanzania
* Paediatric Infectious Disease Society, Nigeria
* Paediatrics Association of DRC
* The Pediatric Infectious Disease Society of Thailand
* Parents of Kids with Infectious Diseases (PKIDs)
* PGIMER School of Public Health
* Pneumonia Advocacy and Working Group of Uganda
* Philippines Foundation for Vaccination (PFV)
* PneumoADIP, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
* Pneumococcal Awareness Council of Experts (PACE)
* Sabin Vaccine Institute
* Save the Children
* Southern African Society of Paediatric Infectious Diseases (SASPID)
* Taiwan Pediatric Society of Thorax
* Task Force for Global Health
* Uganda Pediatric Association
* US Coalition for Child Survival
* US Fund for UNICEF
* Vaccines for Africa Initiative (VACFA)
* Voices For Vaccines
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