World Pneumonia Day

The second annual World Pneumonia Day will be held on November 12, 2010. World Pneumonia Day was launched in 2009 by a broad coalition of public and nonprofit organizations—including the Sabin Vaccine Institute and PACE—to mobilize efforts to fight a neglected disease that kills more than two million children under age five every year. The event helped bring the health crisis to the public’s attention and encouraged advocates, donors and policy makers alike to take action to combat the disease.

PACE members around the world will again work to help organize World Pneumonia Day events and conduct outreach to make November 12, 2010 a truly global day. Here are a few examples of how PACE was involved with World Pneumonia Day 2009:

• PACE Co-Chair and Sabin Executive Vice-President Dr. Ciro de Quadros sat with Global Health TV for a World Pneumonia Day themed interview viewable here.

• In New York, a half-day Global Pneumonia Summit was convened at the Asia Society. Sabin President Dr. Peter Hotez, and numerous PACE Council Members, spoke at the event.

• PACE along with the Child Health Research Foundation (CHRF), Bangladesh Paediatric Association (BPA), Bangladesh Society for Paediatric Infectious Diseases (BSPID), Dhaka Shishu Hospital, ICDDR,B, and Save the Children in Bangladesh led a number of events in Dhaka including a roundtable discussion about pneumonia with opinion leaders and child health experts that was broadcast on national television.

• The Honorable Beth Mugo, Minister of Public Health and Sanitation in Kenya, presented PACE with the Appreciation Award at the Kenyan Paediatric Association’s 3rd annual Running for Child Survival event in Nairobi. The theme of the event was “Pneumonia, Kenya’s No. 1 Child Killer – It’s time to fight back!” In Kenya, pneumonia accounts for an estimated 1 in 5 deaths among children under the age of five.

• Several members authored commentaries and articles for journals and co-authored op-eds for newspapers all over the globe.

• In addition, PACE members organized a press conference in South Africa, a health forum in the Philippines, a breakfast conference in the Dominican Republic, and a pneumonia symposium in Brazil.

Interested in getting involved in World Pneumonia Day?

PACE suggests the following activities for organizations:

• Dedicate part of your organization’s November newsletter to World Pneumonia Day and the issue of pneumonia

• Join the World Pneumonia Day Coalition. To learn more about joining the Coalition, click here

• Link to www.worldpneumoniaday.org from your organization’s website

• Participate in a PACE event, organize your own, or mobilize your members to take action

• In partnership with PACE co-author an op-ed in your country designed to call attention to this important issue

• Display a banner in your organization’s lobby to promote World Pneumonia Day

PACE suggests the following activities for individuals:

• Register with World Pneumonia Day at http://www.worldpneumoniaday.org/register-with-wpd

• Sign a petition to US lawmakers at http://www.change.org/gavialliance/actionas/view/fight_pneumonia_the_1_killer_of_children

• Join World Pneumonia Day on Facebook at http://www.worldpneumoniaday.org/join-the-cause-facebook

Please check back for updates and materials you can use to help spread the word.

For more information on getting involved, email us directly at PACE@sabin.org.