The Issues
Pneumonia claimed 2.5 million lives in 2019, according to the Global Burden of Disease. That’s one person dying every 13 seconds. It is the very young and the very old who are at greatest risk, with 50% of deaths among people aged over 50 years and 30% among children under five.
COVID-19 added another 3.5 million to pneumonia’s death toll in 2021, according to the World Health Organization, bringing the total number of respiratory infection deaths to more than 6 million. No other infection causes anywhere near this burden of death.
Two-thirds of pneumonia deaths are concentrated in a diverse group of 20 countries* representing most regions of the world. Pneumonia deaths among children are concentrated in lower income countries while deaths among older adults are concentrated in high-income countries. A growing number of middle-income countries are experiencing heavy burdens of pneumonia deaths in both age groups.
*India, China, Nigeria, Japan, Brazil, USA, Pakistan, Philippines, Ethiopia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Indonesia, UK, Bangladesh, Russia, Tanzania, Thailand, South Africa, Argentina, Germany, and Burkina Faso
Yet, pneumonia remains a neglected disease – a “global cause without champions.” The levels of national and international support allocated to pneumonia pale in comparison to pneumonia’s heavy disease burden, and also relative to other leading infectious killers. Most countries do not have national strategies to reduce pneumonia and no global fund exists to fight the leading infectious cause of death.
Despite recent gains in reducing child pneumonia mortality, progress in reducing all-age pneumonia deaths has not kept pace with other leading infectious diseases in most countries. Continued lack of action on pneumonia will prevent many countries from achieving the Global Action Plan for the Prevention and Control of Pneumonia and Diarrhoea (GAPPD) target of less than three child pneumonia deaths per 1,000 live births by 2025 and also the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) target of less than 25 child deaths per 1,000 live births by 2030.
Pneumonia is caused by bacteria, viruses, and/or fungi. Most of these are preventable with vaccines and treatable with medicines, including antibiotics and oxygen. A world in which pneumonia deaths are rare in every country is achievable.
