A statement from José Luis Castro, Executive Director of The Union
World Pneumonia Day takes place every 12th of November to remind us all of the continuing and urgent need to raise awareness of the number one killer globally of children younger than five years old – and promote interventions and generate action to reduce these avoidable deaths.
Pneumonia claims 900,000 young lives annually – more than HIV/AIDS, malaria and meningitis combined, accounting for one in six deaths of children under age five. Nearly all of those deaths occur in low- and middle-income countries.
These were deaths that did not have to happen: pneumonia is preventable and treatable, at affordable cost. Our challenge is to bring the communities with the greatest burden the tools, medicines and strategies that save lives. Among these are ongoing access to vaccines, appropriate antibiotic treatment and improved sanitation.
The Union has engaged in the effort to reduce pneumonia through our standardised case management programme, originally implemented in Malawi. In that high-burden country, which is also a high- HIV setting, our programme produced more than a 50 per cent reduction in the case fatality rate for children under age five.
These results were achieved through improved case management in Malawi’s district hospitals. Our approach was modeled on The Union’s milestone DOTS strategy for tuberculosis, which became a global standard, and included surveillance, diagnosis and overall management of respiratory diseases among hospitalised children.
Most significantly, the case management programme is sustainable and replicable.
The Union is committed to greater advances worldwide in preventing and treating pneumonia. We were one of 140 organisations that created the Global Coalition Against Childhood Pneumonia, which coordinates World Pneumonia Day.
The Union applauds the achievements and supports the commitment of the many public health professionals around the world who are dedicated to eliminating pneumonia as a leading killer of young children. We stand with them, and we pledge to continue our efforts with vigour. The means to succeed are within our reach – together, we will succeed.
José Luis Castro
Executive Director
The Union