Campaign to stop world's biggest child killer
WHO and UNICEF launch campaign to stop world's biggest child killer
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Monday, 02, Nov 2009 12:08
By Sarah Garrod
A campaign to stop the world's leading killer of young children has been launched today.
The World Health Organisation and Unicef have warned 5.3 million children could die from pneumonia by 2015 if their plan isn't put into action.
The two organisations have today launched the Global Action Plan for the prevention and control of Pneumonia (GAPP), saying $39 billion (£23.6 billion) will be needed to fund prevention of the killer illness.
The groups say pneumonia kills 1.8 million children under fives years of age every year, more than 98 per cent of which occur in 68 developing countries.
"This action plan provides the strategy to prevent and control pneumonia, which today kills more children than any other illness," said Dr Margaret Chan, director-general, WHO.
"We know the strategy will work, and if it is applied in every high burden country, we will be able to prevent millions of deaths."
The release of the GAPP strategy coincides with the first Global Pneumonia Summit being held in New York City today. The GAPP said they had three aims:
Protecting every child by providing an environment where they are at low risk of pneumonia (with exclusive breastfeeding for six months, adequate nutrition, preventing low-birth-weight, reducing indoor air pollution, and increasing hand washing)
Preventing children from becoming ill with pneumonia (with vaccination against its causes: measles, pertussis, Streptococcus pneumoniae and Haemophilus influenzae b, as well as preventing and treating HIV in children, and providing zinc for children with diarrhoea);
Treating children who become ill with pneumonia with the right care and antibiotics (in communities, health centres and hospitals).
UNICEF executive director, Ann Veneman added: "Effective interventions to reduce deaths caused by pneumonia must be used more widely and made more readily available for children at risk."