World Pneumonia Day! Every breath counts. Stop pneumonia now.

The World Pneumonia Day was established in 2009, marked every year on November 12th. The Global Coalition Against Child Pneumonia led this day.

Objective

The objective of World Pneumonia Day is to;

• Raise awareness about pneumonia, the world’s leading killer of children under the age of five.
• Promote interventions to protect against, prevent and treat pneumonia; and
• Generate action to combat pneumonia.

This year World Pneumonia Day – on 12 November 2020 – will be held during a global pandemic that is dramatically increasing pneumonia deaths from COVID-19 and other causes.

World Pneumonia Day! Every breath counts. Stop pneumonia now.

Facts: Pneumonia: An Urgent Priority

• Pneumonia is the world’s leading infectious killer of children, claiming one child every 39 seconds. Yet pneumonia remains a neglected disease. It has been called a “global cause without champions”.
• Pneumonia is the single biggest killer of children: claiming almost 800,000 lives each year. That is almost two fatalities every minute of every day.
• Pneumonia is the single biggest infectious killer of adults and children –  claiming the lives of 2.5 million, including 672,000 children, in 2019. 
• COVID-19 could add 1.9 million to the death toll this year. This could increase ‘all-cause’ pneumonia deaths by more than 75%. No other infection causes this burden of death.
• Pneumonia deaths are falling but more slowly than other major causes of child mortality. And too slowly to achieve the Sustainable Development Goal of ending preventable child deaths by 2030. Almost all the fatalities are readily preventable through vaccination and treatable with low-cost antibiotics and oxygen. Yet the death toll continues.

Source of info: https://stoppneumonia.org, http://www.worldpneumoniaday.org.

Related links

• WHO advice for international travel and trade in relation to the outbreak of pneumonia caused by a new coronavirus in China
• A Global call to action on childhood pneumonia #WorldPneumoniaDay
• World Pneumonia Day– We are championing the fight against pneumonia!
• Keep the Promise, Stop Pneumonia Now !! – World Pneumonia Day 2016: #StopPneumonia
• World Pneumonia Day 2014 : “Innovate to End Child Pneumonia”.