07 Dec Pneumonia Care Seeking Scorecard
“I might want to take the child to the health centre but the doctor will want money and I don’t have it. So, there is nothing else I can do to help the baby. I just sit and wait for the child to get better.” Mother, Homa Bay, Kenya.
Every Breath Counts has released a Pneumonia Care Seeking Scorecard which highlights 28 countries where more than 50% of children under five with pneumonia systems are NOT take to healthcare. The scorecard uses the latest UNICEF estimates of pneumonia care seeking together with the 2023 Global Burden of Disease estimates of national child pneumonia mortality.
The results are alarming:
- Globally, 38% of children with pneumonia symptoms are NOT taken to an appropriate healthcare provider
- In 28 countries, more than half of all children with pneumonia symptoms are not taken for care
- No country has achieved the WHO/UNICEF target of 90% pneumonia care seeking
- Children living in poor, rural households are least likely to be taken for care
In 28 countries, more than 50% of children with pneumonia symptoms are NOT taken for care. These countries are home to 252,000 child pneumonia deaths, 40% of the global total. In countries including Chad, Somalia, Cameroon, Congo, and Ethiopia it is above 70%. Children living in poor households are least likely to be taken for care. Mothers face many barriers to seeking heath care for sick children – including catastrophic out-of-pocket payments, lack of transportation to healthcare facilities and poor-quality care.
Improved care seeking is critical to ensure sick children are seen by a health worker who can effectively diagnose and treat them – or refer them for special care. It is crucial for the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goal for child survival (SDG 3.2) and progress towards Universal Health Coverage (UHC).
Care seeking for a child exhibiting the symptoms of pneumonia is now an official indicator in the UHC Service Coverage Index. This means that countries seeking to achieve UHC must ensure that all children with pneumonia symptoms are taken to an appropriate healthcare provider. But no country has achieved universal pneumonia care seeking.
Every Breath Counts is calling on all governments to set an official national target of at least 90% pneumonia care seeking by 2030; publish progress to the target annually; and introduce new measures to achieve it by:
1. increasing parent and caregiver awareness of the signs and symptoms of pneumonia and the importance of seeking care quickly (within 24 hours) at appropriate health facilities;
2. introducing policies to remove the barriers that prevent families from seeking timely care (e.g., financial, distance, socio-cultural and gender dynamics, knowledge and low-quality healthcare deterrents, etc.); and
3. prioritizing the children most at risk of pneumonia death by identifying geographic “pneumonia hotspots” and targeting care seeking support to them.
Updated December 2025