World Pneumonia Day (12 November) provides an
annual forum for the world in the fight against
pneumonia
Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of productive or dry cough, chest pain, fever, and difficulty breathing. The severity ...
. More than 100 organizations representing the interests of children joined forces as the
Global Coalition against Child Pneumonia to hold the first World Pneumonia Day on 12 November 2009.
Save The Children
The Save the Children Fund, commonly known as Save the Children, is an international non-governmental organization established in the United Kingdom in 1919 to improve the lives of children through better education, health care, and economic ...
artist ambassadors
Gwyneth Paltrow
Gwyneth Kate Paltrow (; born ) is an American actress and businesswoman. She is the recipient of various accolades, including an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, and a Primetime Emmy Award.
Paltrow gained notice for her early work in films ...
and
Hugh Laurie, Charles MacCormack of Save The Children,
Orin Levine of
PneumoADIP
Orin Levine is an epidemiologist known for his work in the fields of international public health, child survival, and pneumonia. He is currently the director of vaccine delivery at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in Seattle, US. In the past ...
, Lance Laifer of
Hedge Funds vs. Malaria & Pneumonia, the
Global Health Council, the
GAVI Alliance, and the
Sabin Vaccine Institute
Sabin Vaccine Institute (Sabin), located in Washington, D.C., is a nonprofit organization promoting global vaccine development, availability, and use. Through its work, Sabin hopes to reduce human suffering by preventing the spread of vaccine-pre ...
joined together in a call to action asking people to participate in World Pneumonia Day on 2 November.
Pneumonia is a
preventable and treatable disease that sickens 155 million children under 5 and kills 1.6 million each year. This makes pneumonia the number 1 killer of children under 5, claiming more lives in this age group than AIDS, malaria, and measles combined.Despite the overwhelming death toll of pneumonia, it rarely receives coverage in the news media. World Pneumonia Day aims to help bring this health crisis to the
public’s attention and encourages policy makers and grassroots organizers alike to combat the disease.
Affordable treatment and prevention options exist against pneumonia.
PneumoADIP
/ref> There are effective vaccines against the two most common bacterial causes of deadly pneumonia, ''Haemophilus influenzae
''Haemophilus influenzae'' (formerly called Pfeiffer's bacillus or ''Bacillus influenzae'') is a Gram-negative, non-motile, coccobacillary, facultatively anaerobic, capnophilic pathogenic bacterium of the family Pasteurellaceae. The bacteria ...
'' type B and '' Streptococcus pneumoniae'', and most common viral cause of pneumonia, ''Orthomyxoviridae
''Orthomyxoviridae'' (from Greek language, Greek ὀρθός, ''orthós'' 'straight' + μύξα, ''mýxa'' 'mucus') is a family of negative-sense single-stranded RNA virus, negative-sense RNA viruses. It includes seven genus, genera: ''Influenza ...
''. A course of antibiotics
An antibiotic is a type of antimicrobial substance active against bacteria. It is the most important type of antibacterial agent for fighting bacterial infections, and antibiotic medications are widely used in the treatment and prevention o ...
which costs less than $1(US) is capable of curing the disease if it is started early enough. The Global Action Plan for the Prevention and Control of Pneumonia (GAPP) released by the WHO and UNICEF on World Pneumonia Day, 2009, finds that 1 million children's lives could be saved every year if prevention and treatment interventions for pneumonia were widely introduced in the world's poorest countries.
The United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are eight international development goals that 192 United Nations member states and at least 23 international organizations have agreed to achieve by the year 2015. The fourth of these goals is to reduce by two-thirds, between 1990 and 2015, the under-five mortality rate.
References
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External links
World Pneumonia Day
Pneumonia
November observances
Pneumonia
Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of productive or dry cough, chest pain, fever, and difficulty breathing. The severity ...