World Pneumonia Day 2020
This year World Pneumonia Day, 12 November 2020, will be held during a global pandemic that is dramatically increasing pneumonia deaths from COVID-19 and other causes, especially because of the global crisis in access to medical oxygen.
COVID-19 could add more than one million to the death toll this year. This could increase ‘all-cause’ pneumonia deaths by 70%. No other infection causes this burden of death. Further, disruptions to healthcare services are estimated to cause up to an additional 2.3 million child deaths – 35% from pneumonia and newborn sepsis alone.
Many countries across Africa, Asia, and Latin America who are struggling with heavy burdens of both COVID-19 and pneumonia deaths from other causes will need more effective strategies to fight both. Investments in infection prevention (masks, social distancing, hand washing etc), is vital, and improved diagnosis and treatment with pulse oximetry and oxygen can save many lives during the pandemic – and beyond.
This World Pneumonia Day, we are calling on governments and other stakeholders to ensure that the massive effort to control the pandemic contributes to reducing ‘all-cause’ respiratory infections and deaths among both children and adults for the long term.
This World Pneumonia Day, we are calling on governments and other stakeholders to ensure that the massive effort to control the pandemic contributes to reducing ‘all-cause’ respiratory infections and deaths among both children and adults for the long term. Investments in medical oxygen particularly will not only prevent COVID-19 deaths but deaths from many other causes.
In the words of Gargee Ghosh, President, Global Policy and Advocacy, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation:
“Oxygen has always been an essential medicine. COVID-19 is teaching the world just how essential. This World Pneumonia Day, let’s all agree to work more effectively to increase access to medical oxygen.”
RESOURCES
Campaigns
Events
- Global Conference on Pneumonia, PneumoLight
- Maintaining Progress on Childhood Pneumonia in the COVID-19 Era, Gavi
- Conversation with Professor Kim Mulholland, Murdoch Children’s Research Institute
Country commitments
- Kenya Ministry of Health signs National Declaration committing to end child pneumonia deaths
- Nigeria Minister of State for Health launches the National Pneumonia Control Strategy
- India Ministry of Health commits to build a pneumonia-free India
Press releases
Reports
Podcasts
- Public Health on Call – World Pneumonia Day, Johns Hopkins University
- Take a Breath podcast, FREO2 Foundation
Articles
- Leveraging the COVID-19 response to end preventable child deaths from pneumonia, The Lancet
- World Pneumonia Day during a global pneumonia pandemic, American Journal of Physiology
- What does SARS-CoV-2 mean for global pneumonia prevention, diagnosis and treatment, CHEST
- Dismantling at a Single Stroke the Achievements of 20 Years in the Fight Against Pneumonia, El Pais
- How to Save kids from the pandemic fallout, POLITICO
- La mayor asesina de niños, El Pais
- Covid-19 has turned the spotlight on the uneven provision of oxygen—a stark health inequity, BMJ
Blogs
- Getting Oxygen to Nejo Ethiopia, Assist International
- Overcoming Barriers to Medical Oxygen Access, Assist International
- Unlocking the door to oxygen access – pulse oximetry as part of a holistic approach, Unitaid
- Oxygen and COVID-19,UNICEF
Blogs c’td
- Pneumonia: Story of a Mortal Struggle, ISGlobal
- How to ensure more children with pneumonia receive lifesaving treatment, Results 4 Development
- Ending childhood pneumonia: a dream 10 years from now, ALMA, “la Caixa” Foundation
- To Save Lives, Invest in Oxygen: the view from Ethiopia, CHAI & MCRI
Multimedia
- Markets Matter campaign, PATH
- Oxygen Call to Action video, Assist International
- 100andChange video, CHAI and MCRI
- Ethiopia video, CHAI
- Impact of childhood pneumonia on families in Nepal video, IVAC
- Every Step Counts campaign, Every Breath Counts
- One By One 2030: UHC is Oxygen Provision, Access Challenge
- Pneumonia Explainer, UNICEF
World Pneumonia Day – a decade on
In 2009, a diverse group of committed doctors, 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 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
A2O2 Resource Library
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.
10 May, 2023
You paid WHAT?
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.
09 December, 2022
Antimicrobial resistance and pneumonia
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?
18 November, 2022
2nd Global Forum on Childhood Pneumonia
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.
13 November, 2022
Pulse oximeters that work for everyone
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.
10 October, 2022
