World Pneumonia Day 2024
Pneumonia is the single biggest infectious killer of adults and children – claiming the lives of 2.2 million, including 502,000 children under five, in 2021 according to the Global Burden of Disease. Pneumonia-causing pathogens are also the most likely cause of the next pandemic, according to the latest Disease Control Priorities estimates.
This year, for World Pneumonia Day 2024, we are highlighting the partnerships with the power to both accelerate current mortality declines and protect against pandemic risk, because they are focused on mobilizing multiple organizations to work together to increase coverage of the most lifesaving interventions.
This is especially important among children under five as the world is very close to achieving the Global Pneumonia Target of three child pneumonia deaths for every 1,000 babies born. To achieve this target by 2025, child pneumonia deaths need to fall from the current 502,000 per year to 397,000 – very achievable.
Further, success at reducing child pneumonia deaths will help countries achieve the broader Sustainable Development Goal for child survival (SDG 3.2) by the 2030 deadline. Currently, 64 countries are not on track to achieve the neonatal target (12 newborn deaths for every 1,000 babies born) and 52 countries are off-track to achieve the post-neonatal target (13 deaths among children aged 1-59 months for every 1,000 children aged 28 days). As pneumonia is a leading killer of children in both the neonatal (153,000 deaths) and post-neonatal (349,000 deaths) periods, reducing these deaths will have a major impact on the global goal.
But we cannot ignore pneumonia’s massive burden of adults, especially the elderly, and the risk of another respiratory pandemic killing millions.
The Partnerships for Progress highlighted this World Pneumonia Day include governments, global health agencies, foundations, industry, and CSOs joining forces to:
- Introduce and scale more affordable PCV vaccines for children
- Accelerate access to RSV vaccines for pregnant women and monoclonal antibodies for newborns
- Integrate nutrition services with vaccine delivery
- Improve the use of pulse oximetry and access to medical oxygen
- Discover better tools to diagnose pneumonia (e.g., cough sounds, lung ultrasound, AI-enabled, etc.)
- Invest in biomedical engineering capacity to ensure functionality of medical technologies in the health system to save lives now and prepare for the next pandemic
- Mitigate the triple risks of respiratory pandemics, climate change, and antimicrobial resistance
RESOURCES
Events
- Special Bulletin: Launch of PCV, rotavirus, and malaria vaccines, Department of Health, Chad (French)
- Triple launch of PCV, rotavirus, and malaria vaccines in Chad, Action pour la Protection des Droits de l’Enfant (APDE)
- Can we deliver pneumococcal vaccines at a lower cost? London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
- 4th Global Conference for World Pneumonia Day, PneumoLight
- Lessons learned in the management of pediatric pneumonia in low- and middle-income countries, American Thoracic Society
- Climate Change and Respiratory Health, Every Breath Counts
- 2nd Annual Working Group Meeting, the Union Childhood Pneumonia Working Group
- Child pneumonia diagnosis and management in low-and middle-income countries: Working towards 2030, The Union Childhood Pneumonia Working Group
- Youth Pneumonia Advocacy Roundtable, West African Institute of Public Health
- PneumoLight campaign
- WHO RSV Roadshow Webinar Event Series, PATH, ReSViNET Foundation
- Launch of The Lifesaving Power of Pneumonia and Diarrhea Vaccines for Children, Child Health Taskforce
Initiatives
- RSV Chatbot, ReSViNET Foundation
- BME*-Konza Mobile App, Oxygen Alliance (*Biomedical Engineering)
- Regional Centers of Excellence for Biomedical Engineering, Ministries of Health Uganda, Malawi, and Nigeria
- Relaunch of the Children’s Automated Respiration rate Monitor (ChARM) device, ChARM International
- Pulse Oximetry Infographic Builder, Open Oximetry (coming)
- Oxygen Concentrator Directory, Oxygen Co-Lab
- Oxygen Financing Roundtable, PATH, Unitaid, Gates Foundation, Every Breath Counts
Videos
- No Vaccination Without Nutrition! Every Breath Counts
- RSV Chatbot Explainer, ReSViNET Foundation
- Securing equitable access to medical oxygen, Lancet Global Health Oxygen Commission at the World Health Summit
- CHAMPS – Child Health and Mortality Prevention Surveillance, Emory University
- Respiratory Syncytial Virus, The Lancet
- ION Ionic Oxygen Generator, Novair and American Oxygen
- The Oxygen Concentrator Directory: A New Resource for Oxygen Therapy Decision-Makers, COPD Foundation
Reports
- The lifesaving power of pneumonia and diarrhea vaccines for children, Every Breath Counts
- Pneumonia and Diarrhea Progress Report Card 2024, International Vaccine Access Center (IVAC)
- Global Oxygen Strategic Framework and Investment Case, Global Oxygen Alliance (GO₂AL)
- Preventing child and maternal deaths: 2024 annual report to Congress, USAID
Articles (peer-reviewed)
- Access to antibiotics for pneumonia and sepsis in low- and middle-income countries, Lancet Global Health (coming)
- Re-evaluating the impact and cost-effectiveness of pneumococcal conjugate vaccine introduction in 112 low-income and middle-income countries in children younger than 5 years: a modelling study, Lancet Global Health
- Global, regional, and national incidence and mortality burden of non-COVID-19 lower respiratory infections and aetiologies, 1990–2021, Lancet Infectious Diseases
- Global burden of bacterial antimicrobial resistance 1990–2021: a systematic analysis with forecasts to 2050, The Lancet
- RSV Series, The Lancet
Campaigns
- No Vaccination Without Nutrition! Every Breath Counts
- Call to Action for Fair Vaccine Prices, The World Society for Pediatric Infectious Diseases (WSPID)
- Call to Action: Expanding Access to Medicines, Child Health Taskforce, USAID
- RSV Communications Toolkit, PATH
Blogs
- Chad launches vaccination against malaria, pneumococcal disease and rotavirus diarrhea, Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance
- Chad introduces malaria vaccine in triple-vaccine rollout for children, World Health Organization
- Advancing Child Health: Innovative RSV Prevention Strategies in LMICs, Medicines Patent Pool
- RSV vaccines: the latest success story, International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI)
Research
- BREATH – Building a Repository for Evaluation, Analysis, and Treatment for child respiratory Health, Massachusetts General Hospital, qure.ai, Every Breath Counts
- IMCI-PLUS – Point of Care Ultrasound for Pediatric Lower Respiratory Tract Infections in Sub-Saharan Africa, Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute
- BLAAST – Bangladesh Lung Auscultation for Antibiotic Stewardship Trial, Johns Hopkins University (coming)
Funding opportunities
ARTICLES
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
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 340 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
