All Party Parliamentary Group for Child Health and Vaccine Preventable Diseases

All Party Parliamentary Group for Child Health and Vaccine Preventable Diseases

All Party Parliamentary Group for Child Health and Vaccine Preventable Diseases

Mission Statement

Meetings and Events

Pneumonia is the leading infectious cause of child mortality worldwide, causing over 1.5 million child deaths each year

Many of these deaths could be averted with the use of simple vaccines and effective treatments

The All Party Parliamentary Group for Child Health and Vaccine Preventable Diseases was established in 2007 to work with governments, parliamentarians and stakeholders across the world to raise the profile of this terrible disease

The APPG works globally to promote strategies to prevent, protect and treat pneumonia

The APPG works closely with the UK Government, one of the principal drivers and funders of international action to tackle pneumonia

The APPG supports the work of the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation, who have helped to finance and roll out pneumococcal vaccines in the developing world, saving an estimated 5 million lives since 2000

With adequate funding the GAVI Alliance will immunise a further 243 million children in the poorest countries by 2015

The APPG calls on governments across the world to provide the GAVI Alliance with the additional funding they need to help save a further 4 millions lives in the world's poorest countries

1.6 million people a year - a million of them children under five years of age - dying every year from pneumococcal infections ... If we were facing this, we'd be doing something about it - the world should do something about it. I know the importance of parliamentary groups in raising awareness of these kinds of issues and keeping us on our toes - congratulations.

Then Secretary of State for International Development the Rt Hon Hilary Benn MP, speaking at the launch of the APPG on Pneumococcal Disease Prevention

Pneumococcal disease kills over 1.6 million people each year. The vast majority of its victims come from the world's poorest countries and half of them are children under the age of five. It is extraordinary, in view of these facts, that pneumococcus remains a relatively unknown disease and does not have a high place on the agenda of the international community.

Since it was established in 2007, the All Party Parliamentary Group on Pneumococcal Disease Prevention in the Developing World has done a huge amount of work to build awareness and understanding of this forgotten killer. I congratulate the group for all its work and for having come together to research and produce this report.

Secretary of State for International Development the Rt Hon Douglas Alexander MP.

15 Mar 2013 - Comic Relief raises smiles, funds for GAVI

15 Mar 2013 - Why I am a Red Nose Day supporter - Rt Hon Stephen O'Brien MP

13 Mar 2013 - Comic Relief and GAVI: A Fun Partnership That Is Saving Lives

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Improving Child Survival

The aim of the All Party Parliamentary Group for Child Health and Vaccine Preventable Diseases (APPG) is to raise awareness of the burden of preventable diseases in the developing world and to increase access to effective prevention and treatment interventions.

The All Party Group supports wide ranging efforts to reduce child and maternal illness in the developing world and is principally focussed on reducing childhood pneumonia and diarrhoeal disease, the two leading killers of children in the developing world. These conditions are largely preventable through access to effective vaccines and to adequate water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) facilities.

To promote these objectives, the Group works with a range of stakeholders including Government departments, other health and development focussed APPGs, NGOs and medical experts. The Group further supports the work of the World Health Organisation, through the promotion of the 2009 Global Action Plan for the Prevention and Control of Pneumonia (GAPP) and the 2013 Global Action Plan for the Prevention and Control of Pneumonia and Diarrhoeal Disease (GAPPD).

Preventing and treating pneumonia and diarrhoeal disease requires a large concerted effort from donor and recipient countries and from the global community as a whole. The Group will continue to support all efforts to make progress on Millennium Development Goals 4 and 5, for child and maternal health, and will work with partners to help build a sustainable post-MDG framework from 2015.

Follow the APPG on Twitter @APPGChildHealth

To see the full Mission Statement, please click here.