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A panel of experts assessed progress on implementation of the Global Action Plan on the Control and Prevention of Pneumonia GAPP and highlighted the fact that the widespread introduction of new vaccines against the leading cause of pneumonia is essential to reach Millennium Development Goal 4 on child mortality.
Without adequate funding, these vaccines will not reach the children who need them most.
Pneumonia kills more than 1.5 million children every year, despite the fact that there are effective vaccines and treatments to combat it.
98.5 per cent of child deaths from pneumonia occur in developing countries and without the introduction of new vaccines against pneumococcal disease, the leading cause of pneumonia, reaching MDG 4, to reduce the mortality of young children by two-thirds by 2015, will be impossible.
Who: | Moderated by Jeffrey Rowland, Director, Media and Communications, the GAVI Alliance Dr. Olivier Fontaine, Medical Officer, Department of Child and Adolescent Health and Development, WHO, and Dr. Osman David Mansoor, Senior Health Adviser, UNICEF Talked about the burden of pneumonia and implementation of the GAPP. Helen Evans, Interim CEO, the GAVI Alliance Talked about what GAVI is doing to ensure the vaccines are reaching children who need them and how crucial increased funding is to that process. |
When: | Tuesday November 9 2010 at 12:30, CET |
Where: | United Nations, Palais des Nations, Room lll, in Geneva |
The press briefing was held ahead of World Pneumonia Day, (Friday November 12), when awareness-raising events will be held in Geneva and around the world.
The GAVI Alliance is a founding member of the Global Coalition against Child Pneumonia, a coalition of more than 100 organizations, established in April 2009 to raise awareness about pneumonia and to help mobilize the resources required to combat it.
In Geneva, the Jet d'eau will be turned blue, the color of the Coalition, on November 12 to mark World Pneumonia Day. GAVI is inviting all partners in Geneva to wear blue jeans as a mark of solidarity and to come together for a large group photograph in front of the jet at the Bains de Paquis at 1pm on the day.