World Pneumonia Day
The fight to reduce deaths from the single, biggest infectious killer of adults and children has never been more urgent. In 2023, pneumonia claimed the lives of 2.5 million, including 610,000 children under five, according to the Global Burden of Disease.
With aging populations, urbanization, and air pollution increasing the burden of respiratory infections, and the risk of another COVID-like pandemic high, there is a pneumonia crisis across the life course killing millions now and placing many more at risk of death when the next pandemic strikes.
Tragically, it is the very young and the very old who are at greatest risk. Children living in areas with low vaccination rates and malnutrition, and in homes that use polluting fuels for cooking and heating, are particularly vulnerable. Sixty percent of all child pneumonia deaths are attributable to malnutrition.
Older adults exposed to outdoor air pollution – most significantly from burning fossil fuels – and smoking are also at risk. More than one in four pneumonia deaths among adults aged over 70 are attributable to air pollution and smoking.
To focus the world’s attention on pneumonia year, the Every Breath Counts Coalition mobilizes organizations across the globe to lift their voices. Each year, members vote on a theme. Child Survival is the theme for World Pneumonia Day 2025 in recognition of pneumonia’s deadly impact on children under five.
Many countries will not achieve the Sustainable Development Goal for child survival without ensuring that all of their children are protected from pneumonia with good nutrition, clean air, vaccination, and access to speedy diagnosis and treatment, including with antibiotics and oxygen if necessary.
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Highlights from World Pneumonia Day 2025 included the following activities, and more listed below!
- 5th Global Conference for World Pneumonia Day with the theme “Enhancing Diagnosis, Managing Oxygen Needs, and Tackling Antibiotic Resistance”
- Launch of Nigeria’s first Child Survival Action Plan by the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare
- Why fighting pneumonia is key to child survival, Child Survival Action
- Bangladesh celebrates World Pneumonia Day with the Child Health Research Foundation!
- Pneumococcal Vaccine (PCV) Scorecard, which shows the 20 countries where increases in PCV can save the most children’s lives
- New VIEWHub module on Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) vaccination
- Pneumonia Care Seeking Scorecard, which highlights the countries where more than 50% of children with pneumonia symptoms are NOT take for health care
- New study to collect X-ray and ultrasound images from adults and children with pneumonia and/or TB to develop AI algorithms by Qure.ai and the Gates Foundation
- Launch of the first ever CSO Coalitions for Medical Oxygen Access in Zambia, Kenya, Malawi, and Tanzania
- World Pneumonia Day Podcast with Dr Lwimba Kauda, Anesthesiologist, Critical Care Physician, CSO Coalition for Medical Oxygen Access in Zambia
- Nurse Wey Sabi and compelling social media videos from Vaccine Network for Disease Control (VNDC) in Nigeria
RESOURCES
Logos
- World Pneumonia Day, transparent
- World Pneumonia Day and SDGs, transparent
- World Pneumonia Day, blue
- World Pneumonia Day and SDGs, blue
- World Pneumonia Day, blue, small
Articles
- International Pneumonia Day: improving access to oxygen therapy for all, AccessOxygen, Air Liquide
- NutriVax: Integrating Nutrition and Vaccination to Save Children’s Lives in Nigeria (with video), ALIMA
- What do the new Global Burden of Disease estimates tell us about childhood pneumonia?, Every Breath Counts
- The promise of reduced dose pneumococcal vaccination for children, Every Breath Counts
- The power of civil society to support new vaccine introductions, Every Breath Counts
- Baby Lawrence’s Fight for Breath, Marking FREO2’s 30,000th Patient Treated: A World Pneumonia Day Story, FREO2 Foundation
- Study reveals the heavy emotional toll of having a baby hospitalised with RSV, Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance
- Pneumonia Warning Signs: How 300 Parents Learned to Check Oxygen Levels in Nigeria, HealthPort Nigeria
- 11.7 million children vaccinated in Africa countries thanks to the Alliance for Childhood Immunization, “la Caixa” Foundation
- Preventing RSV, a hidden killer of infants in low- and middle-income countries, Medicines Patent Pool
- Debunking 6 common myths about pneumonia in adults, Merck
- One step closer to protection: Setting the stage for maternal RSV vaccine introduction, PATH
- Pneumonia in children: What you need to know, UNICEF
- Building oxygen access from the ground up: an update on the East African Program on Oxygen Access, Unitaid
Peer-reviewed Journals
- Post-mortem investigation of deaths due to pneumonia in children aged 1-59 months in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia from 2016 to 2022: an observational study, Lancet Child and Adolescent Health, Child Health and Mortality Prevention Surveillance (CHAMPS)
- Evaluating the performance of an automated respiratory rate counter in detecting fast breathing pneumonia in children using a reference video expert panel, BMC Digital Health, ChARM
- Health-care burden related to respiratory syncytial virus in a resource-constrained setting: a prospective observational study, Lancet Global Health, Child Health Research Foundation (CHRF) Bangladesh
- The path to equitable respiratory syncytial virus prevention for infants: challenges and opportunities for global implementation, Lancet Global Health, Gates Foundation
- RSV-associated hospitalizations in Bangladeshi children under five: Unveiling the disease burden, Journal of Infection and Public Health, icddr,b
- Pediatric pneumonia: a call for point-of-care diagnostics and prognostics, The Lancet Global Health
- World Pneumonia Day 2025: The Global Burden of a Persistent and Preventable Threat, Springer Nature Research Communities, Catia Cilloniz
- Navigating oxygen management challenges amidst COVID-19 pandemic and beyond in India: a modified Total Interpretive Structural Modeling (m-TISM) approach, BMC Health Services Research
Initiatives
- Transforming oxygen access across nine countries, Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI)
- Pneumococcal Vaccine Scorecard, Every Breath Counts
- Pneumonia Care Seeking Scorecard, Every Breath Counts
- Pediatrician Immunization Pledge, International Pediatric Association (IPA)
- Track New RSV Products to Fight Pneumonia on VIEW-hub, International Vaccine Access Centre (IVAC) (Go straight to VIEW-hub)
- World Pneumonia Day 2025 Toolkit, VIEW-Hub by IVAC
- CSO Coalitions for Medical Oxygen Access in Kenya, Malawi, Tanzania, and Zambia, PATH
- On the verge of RSV disease prevention: A communications toolkit (updated), PATH
- Project Vishwaas – Tackling Childhood Pneumonia in India, ZMQ Development
Campaigns
- Clean Air to Protect Lung Health, Air Aware Labs
- Why fighting pneumonia is key to child survival, Child Survival Action
- STOP RSV, Every Breath Counts
Events
- Bangladesh celebrates World Pneumonia Day 2025!, Child Health Research Foundation
- Launch of Nigeria’s Child Survival Action Plan, Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare
- 5th Global Conference for World Pneumonia Day, Dr Catia Cilloniz, PneumoLight, Every Breath Counts, AGEI Guatemala
- Presentation, Dr Keith Klugman, Gates Foundation
- Debate on Pneumonia Vaccination, National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD), South Africa
Videos
- Supporting FREO2 to deliver oxygen support in 131 health facilities across three countries, Grand Challenges Canada
- L’Espoir Dans Un Flacon (Hope in a Vial), Introducing PCV, rotavirus, and malaria vaccines in Chad, Niyel
- 100 Oxygen Plants and Counting, UNICEF
- Vayu Bubble CPAP in Kenya, Unitaid
- Breath of Hope, Vayu Bubble CPAP in Kakuma Refugee Camp, Vayu Global Health
- World Pneumonia Day message from Nurse Wey Sabi and compelling social media videos from Vaccine Network for Disease Control (VMDC), Nigeria
Press Releases
- Pneumonia Remains Leading Cause of Child Mortality, Forum of International Respiratory Societies Calls for Immediate Action to Prevent Childhood Pneumonia on World Pneumonia Day 2025, American Thoracic Society (ATS) and Forum of International Respiratory Societies (FIRS)
Media
- Why are we still losing children to pneumonia? Daily Nation, Kenya
- Prematurity, pneumonia claim 442,000 children annually — Minister, PUNCH, Nigeria
- World Pneumonia Day: Union Health Minister J.P. Nadda Reaffirms Commitment to Protect Every Child from Pneumonia, Akashvani, India
- Lung protection: Preventing pneumonia in the young and elderly, China Global Television Network, China
- Pneumonia among top killers in the Philippines, Daily Tribune, The
Philippines - Campaign Urges Universal PCV Access for Thai Children, Bangkok Post
Research
- BREATH Study, collecting radiologic data from adults and children in settings affected by tuberculosis and pneumonia, to populate open access databases and advance innovation in AI-automated radiologic interpretation, Qure.ai and Gates Foundation
World Pneumonia Day – a decade on
In 2009, a diverse group of committed clinicians, advocates, academics, UN officials, and business people came together to change the way the world responded to pneumonia, the “forgotten killer of children”. When they launched the first World Pneumonia Day in November, pneumonia was killing 1.2 million children each year.
Read our blog post, written by Leith Greenslade from the Every Breath Counts Coalition, to find out what’s changed in the decade since then – the progress that has been made, and the still-daunting challenge ahead.
ARTICLES
The power of civil society to support new vaccine introductions
Something extraordinary has been happening for the children of Chad, Somalia, and South Sudan. An unprecedented period of child health progress with the introduction of new vaccines against pneumonia, diarrhea, and malaria. Together, these three infections caused 86,000 deaths in 2021 – 45% of all...
22 June, 2025
Best Practices for Pulse Oximeter Use!
“Functional, good-quality pulse oximeters should be available in every area where patients are clinically assessed or admitted in sufficient quantities to meet all needs,” The Lancet Global Health Commission on Medical Oxygen Security Do you want to improve the use of pulse oximetry among children...
06 June, 2025
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?
New estimates from the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) show that the number of children dying from pneumonia increased sharply from 502,000 in 2021 to 610,000 in 2023. This 20% increase was expected following the lifting of COVID-19 restrictions that...
21 May, 2024
