UN: $39 billion needed to protect children from pneumonia

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UN: $39 billion needed for pneumonia

By Cheng, Ap Medical Writer – Sun Nov 1, 7:01 pm ET

LONDON – To fight pneumonia, the world's top killer of children, United Nations

officials say they need $39 billion (euro26.35 billion) over the next six years.

On the first World Pneumonia Day on Monday, the World Health Organization and

UNICEF are releasing a global plan aiming to save more than 5 million children

from dying of pneumonia by 2015.

The plea for money is less than what has been spent on more high-profile

diseases like AIDS, despite the fact pneumonia kills more children than AIDS,

malaria and measles combined.

" This is very simply the biggest killer people never hear about, " said Orin

Levine, a public health expert at s Hopkins Bloomberg School of Health, who

has advised WHO and UNICEF. Pneumonia accounts for about 20 percent of all child

deaths every year; AIDS causes about 2 percent.

Some experts say the neglect of pneumonia is the health community's own fault.

" While public health experts have long known the scope and severity of the

scourge, they haven't effectively mobilized the backers to put pneumonia on the

map, " said Beth Powers, a child health expert at Save the Children.

To change that, the U.N. is promoting a variety of strategies from vaccination

to generalized interventions that address economic development. Pneumonia deaths

are strongly linked to malnutrition and poverty.

While officials agree pneumonia deserves a much larger share of the global

health budget, not all are convinced the U.N. plan is on target.

" Trillions of dollars have been spent on promoting economic development over the

last 50 years, with very little evidence such spending has made any difference, "

said Philip s, of the International Policy Network, a London-based think

tank. " Much of the U.N's nearly $40 billion will be wasted unless they stick to

vaccination. "

Buying vaccines to protect children from pneumonia is precisely what GAVI, a

global alliance of U.N. agencies and private partners like the Bill & Melinda

Gates Foundation, plans to do. GAVI hopes to raise $4 billion to vaccinate about

130 million children in 42 poor countries by 2015.

Since 2000, a vaccine to protect children from pneumonia has existed, but is

only available in rich countries. " Children in poor countries have the same

right to health, the same right to be immunized as children in rich nations, "

said n Lob-Levyt, GAVI's CEO in a statement.

With renewed attention and resources on pneumonia, health officials hope to

slash the number of deaths in half in the next few years. " Until now, pneumonia

has been off the radar, " Levine said. " But this is a big problem that can be

solved. "

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