As you probably have gathered by now, today is World Pneumonia Day. You may have just had one of two reactions: “Oh no, not another one of those wonky global health holidays” or “Yes! Time to get out my pneumonia-fighter costume from last year!”
Eunice, head nurse at Lagata Health Facility in Kenya, gives a baby the pneumococcal vaccine
Bill Roedy, former CEO of MTV, explains why he is passionate in the fight to end pneumonia, a preventable disease.
As a music lover and former CEO of MTV Networks International, I’ve spent decades trying to give voice to young people struggling for creative freedom. More recently though I’ve also taken to a new cause: the struggle of babies and children in poor countries just to survive.
Few people can even name the leading global killer of young children — it’s pneumonia — and it claims a child’s life every 20 seconds. Not surprisingly, the overwhelming majority of these deaths take place in the developing world where access to health prevention and care is sometimes complicated.
With World Pneumonia Day coming up on November 12, there are so many things you can do to help spread awareness using social media. Here are some of our favorite tools, videos and resources on the deadly disease that we found around the web.
Joseph Yieleh Chireh, Ghana’s minister of health, praises GAVI for their work in the fight against the pneumococcal virus ahead of World Pneumonia Day on November 12.
Routine immunization is reaching more Ghanaian children than ever before and the range of available vaccines is growing. No surprise that child mortality in our west African country have almost halved since 1990.
The pneumococcal vaccine, though, deserves a special mention.
By preventing pneumococcal disease, this vaccine protects our children from the leading cause of pneumonia and a major cause of meningitis.
Every year, pneumonia kills thousands of Ghanaian children. Around the world, it kills a child every 20 seconds. Around the world, it is the single largest cause of death for children under five.
On Friday, a gaggle of Pneumonia Fighters — the official World Pneumonia Day mascot — pranced, wiggled and danced through our nation’s capital, clad head-to-toe in skintight, shiny blue bodysuits made of pure Spandex. Their mission? Urge the public to tell President Obama to take the lead in the fight against pneumonia, the No. 1 childhood killer. The effort was a great way to rally support and raise awareness for the issue, and I think the Fighters were pretty effective!
Since many of you don’t live in D.C. (and therefore didn’t get a chance to witness the event firsthand), I jumped at the opportunity to post the official pictures, taken by photographer David Rotbard, on the ONE Blog. They’re pretty awesome — take a look:
Last Friday, a few ONE staff members attended the official World Pneumonia Day event in Washington, D.C., “The Faces of Pneumonia.” Emmy Award-winning journalist Cokie Roberts and Ezekiel Emanuel, health policy adviser to the Executive Office of the President, talked about ways to protect the world’s most vulnerable children from this preventable illness. The dress code to get into the event? Blue jeans, of course.
Take a look at some of our Brooke Riley’s photos from the event in the slideshow. She’s on our global health policy team and couldn’t wait to get a photo with the bright blue bodysuit-wearing Pneumonia Fighters, the official mascot of World Pneumonia Day. Be sure to read her captions — as you can already tell from the photo below, she has a little bit of explaining to do!
In honor of World Pneumonia Day, we have a very special blog post from Edward Turay, high commissioner for Sierra Leone in the UK. Mr. Turay talks about Sierra Leone’s progress in their battle against pneumonia and other diseases.
For World Pneumonia Day this year, I am speaking at the flagship UK event, which is being held in the Houses of Parliament. I will be speaking in front of an audience of parliamentarians, government representatives, leading NGOs and other interested parties, and I am proud that I will be able to relay to them the story of Sierra Leone’s progress in fighting terrible diseases such as pneumonia, the leading killer of children worldwide.
In the recent past, Sierra Leone has had some turbulence, including political instability and conflict. This was reflected in our health care outcomes. Back in 2000, during the Civil War, maternal mortality stood at 1,300 deaths per 100,000 and child mortality stood at 252 deaths per 1,000. These are staggering figures, which suggested a bleak future for my country.
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