Taking Control of Child Pneumonia

Well, we've just missed World Pneumonia Day (November 2), but it's not too late to recognize it; let's give a round of applause to the World Health Organization (WHO) and UNICEF for launching an ambitious new plan to curb childhood pneumonia around the world.

According to a WHO press release, the comprehensive Global Action Plan for the Prevention and Control of Pneumonia (PDF) aims to prevent the pneumonia-induced death of 5.3 million children by 2015. The GAVI Alliance (Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization) jumped into the fray with a promise to vaccinate 130 million children in developing countries against pneumonia during the same period.

The Global Action Plan will take a three-part approach:

• Part 1: give children an environment that makes contracting pneumonia unlikely.
• Part 2: vaccinate kids against the disease and help them stay healthy in other ways.
• Part 3: provide infected children with medical proper care and antibiotics.

If this plan works, the program will have a great impact: child pneumonia deaths will be reduced 65 percent from 2000 levels, and severe pneumonia cases will drop 25 percent from 2000 levels. That kind of progress is sorely needed; according to UNICEF this disease is the leading killer of children under 5, currently accounting for 4,000 child deaths every day.

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