World Pneumonia Day 2016

News Hour:

Anyone can get pneumonia. It’s commonly a complication of a respiratory infection—especially the flu—but there are more than 30 different causes of the illness. Older adults, children and people with chronic disease, including COPD and asthma, are at high risk for pneumonia.

World Pneumonia Day brings people from all over the world together uniting to demand that something be done to fight the pneumonia illness.

World Pneumonia Day helps to highlight the severity of pneumonia and encourages more organisations to look at ways of combating the disease.

This day was first hosted in 2009 when over 100 organisations joined to form the Global Coalition against Child Pneumonia. It’s marked every year on November 12th to:

• Raise awareness about pneumonia, the world’s leading killer of children under the age of five;
• Promote interventions to protect against, prevent and treat pneumonia; and
• Generate action to combat pneumonia.

Pneumonia is one of the most solvable problems in global health and yet a child dies from the infection every 20 seconds. Together we can ensure the fight against pneumonia is won.