The Every Breath Counts Coalition is the world’s first public-private partnership with an ambitious goal: to dramatically reduce the number of children and adults dying from pneumonia by 2030 by closing critical gaps in pneumonia prevention, diagnosis, and treatment.
Our network of UN agencies, non-government organizations, government and foundation donors, companies, and academic institutions are supporting governments in countries with some of the highest burdens of pneumonia, and are dedicated to preventing hundreds of thousands of pneumonia deaths each year.
Identifying the most vulnerable adults and children and ensuring that they receive proven, high-impact interventions at every level of the health system is the most effective strategy to close the critical gaps in pneumonia prevention, diagnosis, and treatment and save lives.
In most countries expanding coverage of the pneumonia-fighting vaccines (DTP, Hib, PCV, measles, flu, and COVID-19) will be a top priority as coverage rates are often very low. In other countries improving access to proper diagnosis and treatment with better tools like pulse oximetry and increased access to child-friendly antibiotics, oxygen, and therapeutic foods will be crucial.
Working directly with mothers and families to improve child nutrition, household air quality, and hand washing with soap will strengthen prevention. Increasing the education, incomes, and agency of mothers with small children will advance child health and boost development everywhere.
Although pneumonia deaths are concentrated in 20 countries representing all regions and income levels, Every Breath Counts focuses on the specific challenges of reducing pneumonia deaths among the most vulnerable populations of children and adults in low- and middle-income countries where health systems are weaker. There is a particularly large and vulnerable group of children living in Nigeria, Chad, the Democratic Republic of Congo, South Sudan, Ethiopia, Somalia and Kenya who are at greatest risk of death from pneumonia.
In these countries, closing the critical gaps in pneumonia prevention, diagnosis, and treatment can save the greatest number of lives and accelerate achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals for health by 2030. Find out more about the 20 countries where pneumonia deaths are concentrated and the seven countries across Africa that are a hotspot for child pneumonia deaths.
Find out more about our members and our initiatives.
Specific Every Breath Counts activities include:
Pneumonia is the leading infectious cause of death in children under five and, as a result, the pneumococcal conjugate vaccine, or PCV, is one of the most lifesaving vaccines. However, just six in every ten children are protected with PCV well below the global target...
The A2O2 Resource Library is a platform for all things oxygen - covering every aspect of the oxygen ecosystem from planning to equipment to patient care.
For the more than 400 million adults and children who get sick with pneumonia each year, the costs of treatment can be catastrophic - as individuals and families are forced to pay out-of-pocket for healthcare. Every Breath Counts is launching a new campaign to document these crippling costs.
How do we reduce inappropriate use of antibiotics for the treatment of pneumonia and close any remaining access gaps for pneumonia patients, especially children, who are missing out?
The 2nd Global Forum on Childhood Pneumonia built on the momentum for action generated by the first Forum in 2020, enabling countries to rapidly reduce child pneumonia deaths and accelerate achievement of the child survival SDG.
There is growing evidence that pulse oximeters do not work effectively on darker skin tones. This is unacceptable. Every Breath Counts has launched a petition to change this.