Global Coalition Against Pneumonia
The Global Coalition Against Child Pneumonia exists to raise global awareness about the deadly toll of the number 1 killer of children - pneumonia. Every year 155 million children under 5 get sick and 1.6 million lose their lives to pneumonia, more than all child deaths combined from AIDS, malaria and measles. Almost all of these child deaths occur in developing countries with most concentrated in just seven - India, China, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Pakistan and Afghanistan.[1]
Children die from pneumonia despite the existence of vaccines that can prevent the leading causes of pneumonia and cost-effective antibiotics that can treat children who are sick. The Global Coalition Against Child Pneumonia is working to save millions of lives through protecting children against pneumonia with proper nutrition through exclusive breastfeeding,[2] preventing pneumonia with new and existing vaccines, particularly Hib vaccine[3] and Pneumococcal conjugate vaccine[4] and treating pneumonia by training health workers to recognize symptoms of pneumonia and increasing access to appropriate antibiotic treatment.[5]
WHO and UNICEF estimate that these interventions, combined with others, could save 1 million children's lives every year taking the world one big step closer to achieving Millennium Development Goals.
World Pneumonia Day
Pneumonia has been overshadowed as a priority on the global health agenda, and rarely receives coverage in the news media.[6] To combat this, the Global Coalition against Child Pneumonia is raising a collective voice to renew the global fight against pneumonia by holding World Pneumonia Day every year. It will provide an annual forum for the world to stand together and demand action in the fight against pneumonia. The first World Pneumonia Day was held on November 2, 2009 and in 2010 World Pneumonia Day falls on November 12. World Pneumonia Day will help bring this health crisis to the public’s attention and will encourage policy makers and grass roots organizers alike to combat the disease.
Coalition members
- African Fighting Malaria
- American Indian Foundation
- American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee
- Antibiotic Consensus Society of Uganda (ACSU)
- Arab Pediatric Infectious Disease Society
- Asian Alliance for Pneumococcal disease (ASAP)
- Best Shot Foundation
- Boston University School of Public Health, Center for Global Health and Development
- CARE
- California Immunization Coalition (CIC)
- Center for Vaccine development (CVD-Mali)
- Centre National d'Appui à la lutte contre la Maladie (CNAM)
- Chinese Society of Pediatric Pulmonology
- Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health
- Croatian Center for Global Health
- The Earth Institute, Columbia University
- Emerging Markets Group, Ltd.
- Every Child by Two
- Episcopal Relief and Development
- Destinee Charity Foundation, Cameroon
- GAVI Alliance
- GiveVaccines.org
- Global Action for Children
- Global Health Council
- Global Science Academy, India
- Hedge Funds vs. Malaria & Pneumonia
- Immunization Action Coalition
- Indian Academy of Pediatrics, West Bengal Branch
- International Pediatric Association
- International Rescue Committee
- The International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease
- International Society for Tropical Pediatrics – Philippines
- The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
- John Snow Inc.
- Jordan University Medical School, Division of Pediatric Infectious Disease
- Kageno
- March of Washingtons
- The MacDella Cooper Foundation
- Measles Initiative
- Medical Terms International
- Monitoring and Accelerate Child Survival Initiative (MACS Initiative)
- Millennium Villages Project
- Ministry of Health – ARI Programme, Malawi
- Ministry of Health, Mali
- National Foundation for Infections Diseases (NFID)
- National Institutes of Health (NIH)
- The Nigerian School Project
- NYU School of Medicine, Department of Medical Parasitology, Malaria and Neglected Tropical Diseases Initiative
- ONE Campaign
- Parents of Kids with Infectious Diseases(PKIDs)
- PATH
- The Paediatric Association of Nigeria (PAN)
- Paediatrics Association of DRC
- Paediatric Infectious Diseases Society, Nigeria
- Paediatric Infectious
- The Pediatric Infectious Disease Society of Thailand
- Pediatric Association of Tanzania
- PGIMER School of Public Health, Chandigarh
- Philippines Foundation for Vaccination (PFV)
- Pneumonia Advocacy and Working Group of Uganda
- PneumoADIP
- Population Service International (PSI)
- Project HOPE
- The Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University
- Sabin Vaccine Institute
- Save the Children
- Southern African Society of Paediatric Infectious Diseases (SASPID)
- The Task Force for Global Health
- Uganda Paediatrics Association(UPA)
- University of Edinburgh
- University of Melbourne, Centre for International Child Health
- US Coalition for Child Survival
- US Fund for UNICEF
- The Vaccines for Africa Initiative (VACFA)
- Vicks
- Voices for Vaccines
- Women’s Refugee Commission
- World Vision
The WHO, UNICEF and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) offer technical assistance to the Global Coalition.
Press Releases
- Child Health Leaders Call for Day to Unite Against Pneumonia, World’s Top Child Killer
- Momentum builds in effort to save millions of children from pneumonia
- Global Fight Against #1 Killer of Children Welcomes The Earth Institute
- New WHO Data Underscores Global Threat of the World’s Leading Child Killer
- Momentum Builds for First-Ever World Pneumonia Day
- GiveVaccines.org Announces Plans to Donate Funds to the Global Coalition Against Child Pneumonia for the Purchase of Life-Saving Vaccines
- Hedge Funds vs. Malaria & Pneumonia Recognizes Participants in World Pneumonia Day event
References
- Rudan I, Boschi-Pinto C, Biloglav Z, Mulholland K, Campbell H (May 2008). "Epidemiology and etiology of childhood pneumonia". Bull. World Health Organ. 86 (5): 408–16. doi:10.2471/BLT.07.048769. PMC 2647437. PMID 18545744.
- Roth DE, Caulfield LE, Ezzati M, Black RE (May 2008). "Acute lower respiratory infections in childhood: opportunities for reducing the global burden through nutritional interventions". Bull. World Health Organ. 86 (5): 356–64. doi:10.2471/blt.07.049114. PMC 2647440. PMID 18545738.
- Watt JP, Wolfson LJ, O'Brien KL, et al. (September 2009). "Burden of disease caused by Haemophilus influenzae type b in children younger than 5 years: global estimates". Lancet. 374 (9693): 903–11. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(09)61203-4. PMID 19748399. S2CID 35274922.
- O'Brien KL, Wolfson LJ, Watt JP, et al. (September 2009). "Burden of disease caused by Streptococcus pneumoniae in children younger than 5 years: global estimates". Lancet. 374 (9693): 893–902. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(09)61204-6. PMID 19748398. S2CID 18964449.
- Matthew Hodge; World Health Organization; Tessa M. Wardlaw; Emily White Johansson (2007). Pneumonia: The Forgotten Killer of Children (PDF). New York, NY: United Nations Publications. ISBN 978-92-806-4048-9.
- Nicholas D. Kristof (March 28, 2009). "Pssst. Pneumonia. Pass it on". Blog: On the Ground. New York Times.