-Margaret McDonnell

I attended the kick-off program for the first World Pneumonia Day in New York. The US Coalition for Child Survival was one of the original groups to join the effort to highlight this event – not a day of celebration, but more a day of awareness. Pneumonia kills more than 2 million newborns and children under the age of 5 every year, mainly in the developing world, and is the leading cause of child deaths. However, with the introduction of vaccinations and improvements in early newborn care, many of these children can be saved.

We need to redouble our efforts to save children from diseases and conditions such as pneumonia, diarrhea, and with issues linked to poor nutrition. The only way that will happen is with a country-by-country strategy and a focused plan of action. The United States can and should be the leader in such efforts to save the lives of young children. We need to increase the resources given to USAID, strengthening its capacity to help ensure that the full package of newborn and child health interventions is available everywhere.

Last week, Senator Dodd (D-Conn.), Senator Corker (R-Tenn.), and Senator Durbin (D-Ill.) introduced the Global Child Survival Act of 2009 (S.1966). This critical piece of legislation recognizes the challenges and opportunities in global child health and calls for greater coordination and enhanced accountability in US Government programs, as well as a government-wide strategy for meeting Millennium Development Goal #4.

The US Coalition for Child Survival has extensive information on newborn and child health, including an easy-to-use factsheet and FAQ page on the new legislation. Visit our detailed information page on S.1966 to learn more and sign up for our e-mail newsletter for updates on the bill’s progress and related efforts.

Let’s work together for the day when we can truly celebrate the end of pneumonia as the number one killer of children. Won’t that be a great World Pneumonia Day to look forward to?

-Andrew Barrer, Executive Director, US Coalition for Child Survival

The summit coincided with the launch of the Global Action Plan for the Prevention and Control of Pneumonia (GAPP), a report authored by UNICEF and the WHO. The GAPP lays out a roadmap for the world to save 5 million lives over the next 6 years through an integrated strategy of protection, prevention and treatment in 68-high burden countries. Meeting these targets will require an estimated $3.8 billion in 2010 to be scaled up to reach $8 billion by 2015. This comes out to an investment of $12.90 per child each year.

Not surprisingly, the majority of this funding is designated for strengthening health systems in developing countries so that pneumonia cases are identified and treated properly and interventions can reach the people who need them. Although many of the speakers focused on the specific impact of pneumonia and the tools needed to fight it, there was also a strong emphasis on the need to integrate any pneumonia strategy with the fight against other major childhood diseases like diarrhea and malaria, especially at the implementation level.

The role of pneumonia in the broader global health and development agenda was put on the table from the very beginning by the Summit’s opening speakers, Columbia Professor Jeff Sachs and Grammy-winning singer and UNICEF Ambassador Angelique Kidjo. Prof. Sachs opened the summit with a call for the pneumonia community to work with the HIV/AIDS and malaria communities instead of “squabbling’” over which disease is receiving the funding it needs because, as we all know, no disease is truly receiving the global attention and resources it needs to be eradicated. He also pointed to the UN MDG Review Summit in 2010 as a moment for the global development community to come together to hold world leaders accountable for their efforts to achieve the eight goals set out in 2000, especially President Obama who has committed to come to the summit with a global plan to reach the MDGs by 2015 and eradicate global poverty in the years beyond. Ms. Kidjo built on this imperative by speaking about the importance of women’s education in the fight against pneumonia and other childhood diseases by drawing on her own childhood in Benin and her travels as a UNICEF Ambassador throughout Africa, where she said women are key to ending pneumonia and other diseases through their role as mothers and caregivers.

Overall, it was a great morning with some important takeaways and action items for all the groups involved. You can watch the webcast of the event here and read about how you can support the World Pneumonia Day Coalition here.

“If you pay taxes in Italy, the UK, Canada, Norway, or Russia, pat yourself on the back.  Your government has contributed to a market-based financing mechanism called the Advance Market Commitment, or AMC.  This provides  an incentive for vaccine makers to produce suitable vaccines in the necessary quantities at an affordable price for developing countries. The result is that GAVI has been able to reduce the current price of existing pneumococcal vaccines by up to 90%.

In the past, it often took 15 or 20 years before vaccines developed for rich countries were sold at affordable prices in developing countries.  Because of the Advance Market Commitment, four vaccine suppliers are now offering pneumo vaccines, specifically developed for the the developing world at affordable prices.

This is aid at its best: creating financial incentives for companies to bring their expertise and innovation to the table to solve some of the world’s most pressing problems.  Donors only pay for vaccines that actually get delivered and used. This money will save the lives of about seven million children over the next 20 years…

And to the countless bureaucrats and nay-sayers who thought it could never happen: yah-booh-sucks.”

Check out his full post here.

GiveVaccines.org wishes you a Happy and, most importantly Healthy, World Pneumonia Day. Today, we help raise awareness to fight pneumonia, a disease taking the lives of two million children each year. With increased awareness and aid, these deaths can be avoided. GiveVaccines.org is teaming up with WorldPneumoniaDay.org by donating all proceeds from November 1 thru November 30, 2009. Each time you log on to GiveVaccines.org and take part in our interactive vocabulary quiz game, you too will help fight the spread of pneumonia around the world.

GiveVaccines.org is a non-profit organization whose ultimate goal is to help prevent the spread of disease in the neediest areas of the world while providing an enjoyable tool for participants to improve their English vocabulary and medical terminology. All net proceeds from advertising revenues are donated to GaviAlliance.org and other affiliated organizations for the purchase of life-saving vaccines. Through support from the GAVI Alliance, low-income countries can access pneumonia vaccines for as little as $0.15 per dose., which equates to 150 accumulative correct answers on GiveVaccines.org. To play this interactive learning quiz, go to www.GiveVaccines.org

To commemorate the World Pneumonia Day, GiveVaccines.org has created a special category with regards to pneumonia. For this category, and each of the other categories, you will find 10 levels of difficulty. GiveVaccines.org will automatically adjust to words of varying levels of difficulty based on your performance. So, challenge yourself and your friends to see what level you can achieve. Visit GiveVaccines.org and help join the cause!

-Sam Rabinowitz, GiveVaccines.org

Child advocates from around the world are gathering in New York City to hear the latest on how we can raise the profile of child pneumonia and get policymakers everywhere to act.

Speakers include:

• Professor Jeffrey Sachs, Director of The Earth Institute at Columbia University and Special Advisor to the United Nations’ Secretary-General
• Singer-songwriter and UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador Angélique Kidjo
• ABC News’ senior health and medical editor Dr. Richard Besser
• WHO and UNICEF present a new report, the Global Action Plan for the Prevention and Control of Pneumonia, which provides a road map for preventing and treat child pneumonia in the world’s poorest countries.
• And leading global health experts, philanthropists, faith-based leaders, corporate representatives and child advocates to begin to change the way the world responds to the #1 killer of children—pneumonia.

Your mission, should you decide to accept it, is to give kids worldwide a fighting chance against pneumonia. Go to www.missionpneumonia.org, and play Save the Children’s new game. Find out about childhood pneumonia and how Save the Children works to help parents and community health workers overcome obstacles to treating a child whose life hangs in the balance.

On November 2, 2009, Save the Children is joining with other groups worldwide to bring attention to the terrible toll that pneumonia takes in developing countries. A child dies of pneumonia every 15 seconds. That comes to about 2 million lives lost each year. But, with your help, more than 1 million lives could be saved by making affordable health measures available – including vaccines, and antibiotics – and by bringing health care closer to children’s homes. That’s just what Save the Children is doing every day to save children’s lives in 40 countries.

Now we’re enlisting you to help us prevent pneumonia from striking susceptible children and protecting their lives when it does. Here’s how:

• Play the game at www.missionpneumonia.org Learn what it takes to fight pneumonia around the world by taking our quiz.
• Sign the petition. Show your elected officials that you support expanding the reach of life-saving tools – vaccines, antibiotics and trained health workers – to more mothers and babies in poor countries.
  Pneumonia is the #1 killer of children under age 5, taking more lives than malaria, AIDS and measles combined. By accepting this mission, you can help keep kids healthy.

Thank you so much for your support,

-Mary Beth Powers, Campaign Chief, Survive to 5

What do Hugh Laurie, Gwyneth Paltrow, Senator Bill Frist, and Grammy winner Angélique Kidjo have in common? They are all lending their voices to the growing call to stop child pneumonia. Health leaders from across the globe— Rwandan Health Minister Richard Sezibera, Samir Saha from Bangladesh and Lulu Bravo from the Philippines, to name a few—are commemorating the first ever World Pneumonia Day today. Year after year, this leading killer of children has gone unrecognized, but like me, these advocates believe we can put an end to this disease. Stand with us and say: Pneumonia no more.

The goal of World Pneumonia Day is simple: to stand up for the children who lose their lives to this preventable, treatable disease. Every 15 seconds a child is killed by pneumonia. But we can stop the clock and save millions if vaccines, antibiotics and protective measures like breastfeeding are universally implemented.

Sounding the call to action in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is Michel Nyembwe, who organized a televised football match to bring attention to the disease; in Nigeria, Adegoke Falade is speaking on the radio about pneumonia. In India, a Great Pneumonia March is turning thousands of heads in rural Uttar Pradesh, and a mass media campaign is hitting Pakistan TV. In the United States, advocates from health, development, government and business communities will meet in New York City for a summit dedicated to global pneumonia control.

Want to join in the action and stand up against pneumonia? Check out this handy map to see what events are taking place in your country. But no matter where you are, showing your support for World Pneumonia is simple. Just put on a pair of your favorite blue jeans and tell your friends about pneumonia, the most solvable problem in global health.

-Orin Levine, Executive Director of PneumoADIP

In anticipation of Monday, Dr. Orin Levine writes in Global Health Magazine about this perception problem. According to Dr. Levine, “unlike HIV and malaria, pneumonia has yet to inspire substantial donor support or grassroots activism” with a possible explanation being “pneumonia’s familiar yet unthreatening image in the developed world.”

You can read Dr. Levine’s full piece here, and read more about our World Pneumonia Day series here.

While it garnered just about 11 percent of votes, pneumonia is in fact the leading killer of children. Pneumonia is an infection of the lungs which is caused by many organisms, but globally, bacteria such as Hib and pneumococcus are estimated to cause more than half of all childhood pneumonia deaths. Every year, 2 million children under five years of age are killed by the disease (more than AIDS, malaria and measles combined), even though we have the tools we need to prevent and treat it, including immunizations and antibiotics.

On our quiz, the most popular choice with 59 percent of votes was diarrhea, the second leading cause of death for children under five. Below, in descending order, are the top causes of death for children under five and the accompanying percentage of votes each received:

1. Pneumonia (11%)
2. Diarrhea (59%)
3. Malaria (22%)
4. Measles (3%)
5. HIV/AIDS (6%)

If you found the results to be surprising, we thought you might. Despite its burden compared to other diseases, relatively little attention is given to pneumonia. ONE is part of the Global Coalition Against Pneumonia, a group of organizations that is trying to increase knowledge about the disease, and decrease the millions of avoidable childhood deaths. Together with fellow coalition members, ONE will observe the first-ever World Pneumonia Day on November 2nd. To learn more, visit www.worldpneumoniaday.org and continue to check out ONE’s blog for more posts about the disease.