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On World Pneumonia Day, World Vision calls for urgent action to address leading cause of death in children worldwide

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13 years ago

November 12, 2013

On World Pneumonia Day, World Vision is calling on the EU to prioritise action to prevent and treat pneumonia, which remains the leading cause of death in children worldwide.

“Pneumonia kills an estimated 1.2 million children under the age of five every year – more than AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis combined,” said World Vision’s EU representative Marius Wanders.

"Many people remain unaware of pneumonia’s overwhelming death toll. As a result, the disease is overshadowed as a priority on the global health agenda. World Pneumonia Day is an opportunity to bring this health crisis to the public’s attention, and to encourage EU policy makers, donors and civil society alike to combat this disease," Wanders added.

World Vision says access to effective and affordable pneumonia interventions must be scaled up to ensure they are available to the most vulnerable. According to Wanders: "There are effective vaccines against the two most common causes of pneumonia, while a course of antibiotics, which costs less than US$1, is capable of curing the disease if started early enough.”

The Global Action Plan for the Prevention and Control of Pneumonia, released by the WHO and UNICEF, reveals 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.

“Particularly as we near the 2015 deadline for the Millennium Development Goals – which seek to reduce by two-thirds the under-five child mortality rate – we’re calling for the EU and international donors to prioritise urgent action to reduce pneumonia deaths,” Wanders explained.

World Vision is an international Christian relief and development organisation working with children and their families around the world to tackle poverty and injustice.

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