UK marks inaugural World Pneumonia Day (02 Nov 2009)

November 2nd 2009 will mark the inaugural World Pneumonia Day which will be observed by nearly 100 leading global health organisations from around the world taking action to urge governments to take steps to fight pneumonia, the world's leading killer of young children.

Pneumonia takes the lives of more children under 5 than measles, malaria, and AIDS combined and takes the life of one child every 15 seconds accounting for 20% of all deaths of children under 5 years of age worldwide. While pneumonia affects children and families everywhere, it has the most deadly impact in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, where 98% of pneumonia deaths among children occur. It can be prevented with simple interventions such as immunisation, breastfeeding and nutrition and treated with low-cost, low-tech medication.

Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for International Development, Mike Foster MP, said, "In developing countries pneumonia is responsible for snatching a catastrophic number of innocent children's lives - more than malaria, AIDS and measles combined."

"The UK remains fully committed to putting an end to this devastating and preventable disease. That is why the Department for International Development is funding efforts to increase access to existing treatments and the development of a new and more effective vaccine that could save up to 7 million lives by 2030."

"The UK has helped lead the way to help end the devastating scourge of this disease however, more needs to be done to ensure that children in the developing world have increased access to preventative vaccines and improved treatment options. This is a significant priority for DFID and we are seeking to ensure this is the case."

"For the first time in history, we have the commitment from countries and the tools and systems in place to deliver new life-saving vaccines to protect millions of children against the world's biggest childhood killer pneumonia," said Dr. Julian Lob-Levyt, CEO of the GAVI Alliance. "With increased donor support, we can save many more lives and make an incredible leap in progress towards further reducing child mortality in the world. This is a historic opportunity we must not ignore."

Due to the cost and limited availability of vaccines and treatments and the incredible strain on developing world health systems, not enough is being done to prevent the millions of deaths across the globe.

World Pneumonia Day will highlight these issues to developing and developed world governments in the hope that more can be done.

"World Pneumonia Day is an opportunity for Parliamentarians, civil society, country representatives and the global health community to come together to discuss how we can beat this terrible yet almost entirely preventable disease," said Dr Desmond Turner MP, Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Pneumococcal Disease Prevention in the Developing World (APPG). The APPG held an event in the House of Commons on the 28th of October to mark World Pneumonia Day.

Notes to the editor

Global Action Plan for Prevention and Control of Pneumonia In a plan released today by the World Health Organization (WHO) and UNICEF which will be published on World Pneumonia Day, the Global Action Plan for the Prevention and Control of Pneumonia (GAPP) outlines a six-year plan for the worldwide scale-up of a comprehensive set of interventions to control the disease. Countries are urged to implement a three-pronged pneumonia control strategy that:

• Protects children by promoting exclusive breastfeeding and ensuring adequate nutrition and good hygiene;
• Prevents the disease by vaccinating them against common causes of pneumonia such as Streptococcus pneumoniae (pneumococcal disease) and Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib); and
• Treats children at the community level and in clinics and hospitals through effective case management and with an appropriate course of antibiotics.

To download the Global Action Plan for Prevention and Control of Pneumonia, visit http://whqlibdoc.who.int/hq/2009/WHO_FCH_CAH_NCH_09.04_eng.pdf.

Ensuring Treatment, Achieving Prevention Studies show that implementing pneumonia prevention and treatment interventions worldwide could save more than one million lives each year and significantly reduce the burden of families and communities that must cope with pneumonia-related illnesses and deaths. Pneumonia can be treated effectively with antibiotics that cost less than a dollar, but less than 20% of children with pneumonia receive the antibiotics they need, according to WHO.

Safe and effective vaccines exist to provide protection against the primary causes of pneumonia, Streptococcus pneumoniae (pneumococcal disease) and Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib). However, use of Hib vaccine has only recently expanded to low-income countries and pneumococcal vaccine is not yet included in national immunization programs in the developing world, where children bear the highest risk for pneumonia and where most pneumonia-related child deaths occur.

As the result of collaborative efforts by WHO, UNICEF, the GAVI Alliance, academia, foundations, vaccine manufacturers, and donor and developing country governments, low-income countries can now access existing and future pneumococcal vaccines with a small self-financed contribution of as little as US $0.15 per dose. To date, 11 countries have received GAVI Alliance approval for support to introduce pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV) and 12 additional countries have submitted applications.

World Pneumonia Day: A Global Effort The Global Coalition against Childhood Pneumonia, made up of nearly 100 influential global health organizations has led the World Pneumonia Day effort. Events are taking place in more than 25 countries around the world.

"Pneumonia takes a devastating toll on families and communities in resource-poor countries, so it is vitally important that this message be amplified throughout the developing world," said Mary Beth Powers, chief of Save the Children's Survive to 5 campaign. "The involvement of these countries in this effort is an important step toward reducing pneumonia deaths."

World Pneumonia Day events and activities will raise awareness, outline solutions and call upon governments to act to combat pneumonia. In New York City, more than 100 leaders in science, politics and global health will gather for the first World Pneumonia Day Summit. Other activities will include week-long activities in Nigeria including educational events, policy briefings and rallies; a policymaker roundtable and symposium in Bangladesh; a Run for Survival in Kenya; pediatrician workshops in Nepal; a health symposium in the Philippines; and a briefing in London at the House of Commons. Additional events are planned in China, the DRC, Ethiopia, India, Malawi, Mali, Pakistan, the Philippines, South Africa, Thailand, and Uganda. An event list can be found at http://worldpneumoniaday.org/events/upcoming-events/. These events all underscore the need for urgent action to protect the lives of children everywhere.

About The Global Coalition against Child Pneumonia The Global Coalition against Child Pneumonia and the World Pneumonia Day Coalition, was established in April 2009. It seeks to bring focus on pneumonia as a public health issue and to prevent the millions of avoidable deaths from pneumonia that occur each year. The coalition is grounded in a network of international government, non-governmental and community-based organizations, research and academic institutions, foundations, and individuals that have united to bring much-needed attention to pneumonia among donors, policy makers, health care professionals, and the general public. Learn more at www.worldpneumoniaday.org

For more information please visit;

• World Pneumonia Day; www.worldpneumoniaday.org
• All-Party Parliamentary Group on Pneumococcal Disease Prevention in the Developing World; http://www.appg-preventpneumo.org.uk
• GAVI Alliance; http://www.gavialliance.org