Save the Children, PneumoADIP, Hedge Funds vs. Malaria & Pneumonia, and the GAVI Alliance “joined with Save the Children Artist Ambassadors Gwyneth Paltrow and Hugh Laurie” to establish an annual World Pneumonia Day on November 2, 2009.  The event is intended to increase awareness about and investments in prevention, diagnosis and treatment of pneumonia, which the media releases described as the “world’s top child killer” and world’s most neglected disease, killing more than 2 million children annually.

Charles MacCormack, president and CEO of Save the Children, said, “Pneumonia is the world’s number one killer of children. But with new vaccines, early diagnosis and proper treatment with antibiotics that cost less than a dollar, a child’s health can improve and lives can be saved.” Dr. Orin Levine, a pneumonia expert and associate professor at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, commented, “In wealthier countries, we don’t often see life-threatening child pneumonia. It’s easy to forget that around the world, pneumonia is still killing more than 5500 kids every day. Pneumonia is both common and extremely serious, but with existing tools like vaccines and antibiotics, we can save more than a million children every year.”

The organizations have created a website to support the effort at http://www.WorldPneumoniaDay.org and a Facebook presence at  http://tinyurl.com/WorldPneumoniaDay

Full media release at: http://www.gavialliance.org/media_centre/press_releases/2009_04_06_World_Pneumonia_Day.php