Save The Children artist ambassadors Gwyneth Paltrow and Hugh Laurie, Charles MacCormack of Save The Children, Orin Levine of PneumoADIP, Lance Laifer of Hedge Funds vs. Malaria & Pneumonia, the Global Health Council, the GAVI Alliance, and the Sabin Vaccine Institute joined together in a call to action asking people to participate in World Pneumonia Day on 2 November.
This makes pneumonia the number 1 killer of children under 5, claiming more lives in this age group than AIDS, malaria, and measles combined.Despite the overwhelming death toll of pneumonia, it rarely receives coverage in the news media.
[1][2] World Pneumonia Day aims to help bring this health crisis to the public’s attention and encourages policy makers and grassroots organizers alike to combat the disease.
A course of antibiotics which costs less than $1(US) is capable of curing the disease if it is started early enough.
The United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are eight international development goals that 192 United Nations member states and at least 23 international organizations have agreed to achieve by the year 2015.