World Pneumonia Day - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

World Pneumonia Day provides an annual forum for the world to stand together and demand action in the fight against pneumonia. More than 100 organizations representing the interests of children joined forces as the Global Coalition against Child Pneumonia

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...

to hold the first World Pneumonia Day on November 2, 2009. Save The Children

Save the Children

Save the Children is an internationally active non-governmental organization that enforces children's rights, provides relief and helps support children in developing countries...

artist ambassadors Gwyneth Paltrow

Gwyneth Paltrow

Gwyneth Kate Paltrow is an American actress and singer. She made her acting debut on stage in 1990 and started appearing in films in 1991. After appearing in several films throughout the decade, Paltrow gained early notice for her work in films such as Se7en and Emma...

and Hugh Laurie

Hugh Laurie

James Hugh Calum Laurie, OBE , better known as Hugh Laurie , is an English actor, voice artist, comedian, writer, musician, recording artist, and director...

, Charles MacCormack of Save The Children, Orin Levine

Orin Levine

Dr. Orin Levine is a recognized expert in the fields international public health, child survival, and pneumonia. He currently acts as the Executive Director of the , the Co-Chair of the Pneumococcal Awareness Council of Experts , and is an Associate Professor at The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School...

of PneumoADIP

PneumoADIP

Pneumococcal vaccines Accelerated Development and Introduction Plan is a small, dedicated team based at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and is supported by a $30 million grant from the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization...

, Lance Laifer of Hedge Funds vs. Malaria & Pneumonia

Hedge Funds vs. Malaria & Pneumonia

Hedge Funds vs. Malaria & Pneumonia is an advocacy group that encourages innovative ideas to treat and prevent malaria and pneumonia worldwide. Hedge Funds vs. Malaria officially changed its name from Hedge Funds vs. Malaria & Pheumonia in order to recognize the fact that pneumonia is the largest...

, the Global Health Council

Global Health Council

The Global Health Council is a United States-based non-profit networking organizing linking "several hundred health non-governmental organizations around the world to share knowledge and resources, build partnerships and together become stronger advocates for health"...

, the GAVI Alliance, and the Sabin Vaccine Institute

Sabin Vaccine Institute

The Sabin Vaccine Institute is a non-profit, 501 organization dedicated to reducing needless humansuffering from vaccine preventable and neglected tropical diseases through prevention and treatment...

joined together in a call to action asking people to participate in World Pneumonia Day on November 2. In 2010, World Pneumonia Day falls on November 12th.

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 young lives than AIDS, malaria, and measles combined. Yet most people are unaware of pneumonia’s overwhelming death
toll. Because of this pneumonia has been overshadowed as a priority on the global health agenda, and rarely receives coverage in the news media. World Pneumonia Day helps to bring this health crisis to the public’s attention and encourages policy makers and grassroots organizers alike to combat the disease.

In spite of the massive death toll of this disease, affordable treatment and prevention options exist. There are effective vaccines against the two most common causes of deadly pneumonia, Haemophilus influenzae
Haemophilus influenzae
Haemophilus influenzae, formerly called Pfeiffer's bacillus or Bacillus influenzae, Gram-negative, rod-shaped bacterium first described in 1892 by Richard Pfeiffer during an influenza pandemic. A member of the Pasteurellaceae family, it is generally aerobic, but can grow as a facultative anaerobe. H...

type B and Streptococcus pneumoniae
Streptococcus pneumoniae
Streptococcus pneumoniae, or pneumococcus, is Gram-positive, alpha-hemolytic, aerotolerant anaerobic member of the genus Streptococcus. A significant human pathogenic bacterium, S...

. A course of antibiotics 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

Millennium Development Goals

The Millennium Development Goals are eight international development goals that all 193 United Nations member states and at least 23 international organizations have agreed to achieve by the year 2015...

(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. Because pneumonia causes such a large number of under five deaths (almost 20%), in order to achieve MDG 4, the world must do something to reduce pneumonia deaths.

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