Fighting pneumonia: an agenda for action

Pneumonia is the world’s leading infectious killer, claiming the lives of an estimated 2.5 million people in 2019, including 672,000 children under five and 1.2 million adults over 70 years. The COVID-19 pandemic has increased the burden of respiratory infection deaths to more than 6 million in 2021.

Urgent action is needed to both reduce the massive burden of sickness and death from pneumonia and reduce the risk that future respiratory pandemics will kill millions more.

For World Pneumonia Day, the Mérieux Foundation and Every Breath Counts Coalition joined forces to host a critical conversation on what governments and international agencies must do to reduce pneumonia deaths and the risk of future respiratory pandemics – featuring:

• Pneumonia and the pandemic: challenges and opportunities
  Prof. Eric McCollum, Johns Hopkins University, Lesotho
• Reducing a critical pneumonia risk: household air pollution
  Prof. Kalpana Balakrishnan, Sri Ramachandra Institute for Higher Education and Research, India
• The power of the pneumonia-fighting vaccines
  Dr. Chizoba Wonodi, International Vaccine Access Center (IVAC), Nigeria
• The critical role of pulse oximetry in reducing child pneumonia deaths
  Dr. Ahmed Ehsanur Rahman, icddr,b, Bangladesh
• Increasing access to medical oxygen: leveraging COVID-19 support
  Dr. Hamish Graham, University of Melbourne and Murdoch Children’s Research Institute (MCRI), Australia
• Exciting new vaccines to reduce pneumonia deaths in children
  Dr Keith Klugman, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

The webinar showcased video footage from the winners of the Small Grants Awards for the World Pneumonia Week of Action from 7 to 12 November 2022.

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