Established in 2009, World Pneumonia Day is marked every year on November 12th to increase awareness and advocacy efforts to combat pneumonia, promote interventions to protect against, prevent and treat pneumonia and generate action to combat pneumonia.
Pneumonia is the world’s leading killer of children under the age of five, one of the most solvable problems in global health and yet a child dies from the infection every 20 seconds. It causes more deaths in children under five than AIDS, malaria and measles combined.
Even though a vaccine to prevent pneumonia is available, 75% of children around the world remain unprotected against pneumonia. Combating pneumonia is essential to meeting Sustainable Development Goal 3.2 which aims to reduce preventable child death.
World Pneumonia Day is an opportunity to raise awareness and advocate to combating pneumonia so that all children, regardless of where they are born, can have access to life-saving vaccines and medicines.
To learn more about the issue: view this 1:49 minute video “What if this was your friend’s child”, at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YwBrRg4pB-4 and/or World Pneumonia Day website http://www.worldpneumoniaday.org/
To add your voice to help children beat pneumonia please sign A Fair Shot petition by clicking here.
To spread the word and enlist the support of families, friends and communities, a Petition Text/Signatures Sheet as well as a Petition Instruction Sheet can be downloaded at http://grandmothersadvocacy.org/issue/vaccines, scroll down to Resources.
Adding your voice can help win the fight against pneumonia. Will you join us?
