Initiatives
The Every Breath Counts Coalition drives flagship initiatives to accelerate improvements in the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of pneumonia amongst the populations at greatest risk of death. For example, to increase coverage of the pneumonia-fighting vaccines, Every Breath Counts joined forces with other organizations to co-host the Introducing PCV and Rotavirus Vaccines Workshop in Chad in September 2023. This convening resulted in accelerated plans from Chad, Guinea, South Sudan, and Somalia to introduce the PCV and rotavirus vaccines before 2025.
To keep pneumonia front and center of the new Child Survival Action agenda, Every Breath Counts co-hosted the 2nd Global Forum on Childhood Pneumonia in Spain. This forum culminated in 38 milestone commitments from governments, donors, NGOs, companies, academic institutions, and professional societies which will not only reduce child pneumonia deaths but child deaths from all causes. Every Breath Counts has also published A Call to Action to fill the Data Gaps and recommendations for improving pneumonia and hypoxemia indicators to help countries measure their progress in diagnosing and treating children with pneumonia.
To improve diagnosis and treatment, Every Breath Counts is supporting the Lancet Global Health Commission on Medical Oxygen Security. The Commission brings together 20 expert Commissioners and 40 Advisors, and a global network of more than 1,000 Oxygen Access Collaborators, to examine the causes and consequences of lack of access to medical oxygen and to recommend strategies to ensure that no patient dies for lack of access to medical oxygen, including during future respiratory pandemics. We continue to campaign for pulse oximeters that work for all patients irrespective of skin pigmentation; for more investment in the biomedical engineering profession, and for more support to pneumonia research by the major infectious disease researcher funders. In addition, every year on 12 November, Every Breath Counts marks World Pneumonia Day, and joins the global call for more action to reduce the world’s leading infectious threat.
Every year, the Coalition produces flagship publications including national scorecards for pneumonia care seeking, PCV coverage, and air pollution, and several reports in critical areas of prevention, diagnosis, and treatment. New areas of work include developing a better understanding of the risk of another respiratory pandemic in the next decade, the pathogen/s responsible, the likely location/s of the outbreak, and the medical tools needed to respond effectively.
Introducing PCV and Rotavirus Vaccines Workshop
In September 2023 in Chad, Every Breath Counts joined the Mérieux Foundation, the International Vaccine Access Center (IVAC), and Save the Children to bring together the Ministries of Health from Chad, Guinea, South Sudan, and Somalia to accelerate introduction of the pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV) and rotavirus vaccines. These four countries are among the last remaining Gavi-eligible countries in Africa to protect their children with these two vaccines that target the leading killers of children under five – pneumonia and diarrhea.
2nd Global Forum on Childhood Pneumonia, Spain 2023
In April 2023 in Spain, Every Breath Counts and leading UN and global health agencies brought together more than 300 child health stakeholders, including 14 Ministries of Health, to commit to better ways of reducing child pneumonia deaths and accelerating achievement of the Sustainable Development Goal for child survival. The two-day event culminated in 38 milestone commitments. Six months later, in November 2023, Every Breath Counts brought back 12 of the commitment- makers to report on their progress.
Lancet Global Health Commission on Medical Oxygen Security
In September 2022, the Lancet Global Health announced a commission to examine the causes of the COVID-19 medical oxygen shortages and to recommend strategies to ensure that no patient ever again dies for lack of access to medical oxygen. The Commission is co-chaired by Makerere University in Uganda, icddrb, in Bangladesh, and the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute and Melbourne University in Australia with support from Every Breath Counts to ensure that the profile of the Commission’s vital work remains high.
Biomedical Engineers: They Make it Work!
Biomedical engineers are among healthcare’s unsung heroes. To spotlight the contributions of biomedical engineers and technicians working in some of the most challenging conditions – and to encourage governments, hospitals, and international donors to invest in the profession as a vital part of strong health systems and pandemic preparedness and response – Every Breath Counts is highlighting biomedical engineers in a new campaign, Biomedical Engineers: They Make it Work! In addition to championing individual biomedical engineers, the campaign is calling on national governments, regional bodies, and international health and development agencies and their donors to take six key actions to strengthen the biomedical engineering profession. Imagine every national health system with biomedical engineers in sufficient numbers, with the right skills, properly remunerated, supported to conduct their jobs effectively, and with a career path that incentivizes them to stay working in the health system. Help us get there!
World Pneumonia Day
Every Breath Counts marks World Pneumonia Day each year on 12 November when our members join the chorus of voices globally advocating for action to reduce pneumonia deaths. Since 2009, this day has been marked with special events, campaigns, speeches, announcements, and more. In 2023, Every Breath Counts was honored to support the 3rd World Pneumonia Day Conference: Pneumonia in the Americas, held in Peru and virtually, host the Commitment Progress Roundtable, which brought together 12 of the 38 commitment-makers from the 2nd Global Forum on Childhood Pneumonia, and release a campaign marking progress in pneumonia prevention, diagnosis, and treatment. In earlier years, Every Breath Counts collaborated with the Mérieux Foundation to announce small grants to civil society organizations who are raising awareness about pneumonia in some of the highest burden countries (2022), co-hosted an event on air pollution and pneumonia at COP26 (2021), raised awareness about the urgent need for medical oxygen in the context of a global pandemic (2020), and more.
Read more about World Pneumonia Day 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, and 2019.
Future respiratory pandemics
The annual probability of a respiratory pandemic killing at least 10 million people worldwide is 4.2%, and over a 10 year period, 35%. Extrapolated further, over the next 25 years, there is a 66% probability of a respiratory pandemic that would kill 10 million people or more, according to recent estimates from Ginkgo Bioworks. The most likely culprits will be pandemic influenza viruses and epidemic/novel coronaviruses and although people across all regions will suffer, the elderly and the very young in Sub-Saharan Africa and Central Asia will suffer the greatest casualties. What does this mean for pandemic prevention, preparedness, and response? At the very least, every health system in Sub-Saharan Africa and Central Asia is equipped with the tools to identify the spread of a respiratory pathogen and move quickly to prevent spread, diagnose patients, and treat quickly and effectively.
ARTICLES
Climate change and respiratory health
Climate Change and Respiratory Health, brought together four leading experts – Heather Adair-Rohani from the World Health Organization (WHO), Rebecca Nantanda from Makerere University Lung Institute, Laura-Jane Smith from the British Thoracic Society, and John Sampson from Johns Hopkins University to explore different facets of...
11 December, 2024
Open Letter to The Global Fund Board: Access to medical oxygen
Dear Global Fund Board, The Global Fund must continue its vital work helping eligible countries close the massive gaps in access to medical oxygen that are stymying efforts to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and prepare for the next pandemic. Oxygen is an essential...
19 November, 2024
Medical oxygen and the SDGs
“Apart from oxygen, name one other essential medicine that is a topline treatment for all but one of the conditions targeted by the health SDGs?” This was the focus of the second of three High Stakes Conversations on the role of medical oxygen and global...
09 July, 2024
What do the new Global Burden of Disease estimates tell us about childhood pneumonia?
For the first time since global child mortality statistics have been collected, the end of child pneumonia deaths is in sight. New estimates from the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) show that the number of children dying from pneumonia dropped...
21 May, 2024
Medical oxygen and respiratory pandemics
This was the focus of the first of three High Stakes Conversations on the role of medical oxygen and respiratory therapies hosted by Every Breath Counts on 30 April 2024. The event, Respiratory Pandemics and Access to Medical Oxygen, brought together four leading experts on...
12 May, 2024
The promise of reduced dose pneumococcal vaccination for children
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...
17 March, 2024
