- The day is celebrated to highlight the severity of pneumonia and encourages more organisations to look at ways of combating the disease.
- It was first hosted in 2009 when over 100 organisations joined to form the Global Coalition against Child Pneumonia.
- Pneumonia is a preventable and treatable disease that sickens 155 million children under 5 and kills 1.6 million each year.
- This makes pneumonia the number 1 killer of children under 5, claiming more young lives than AIDS, malaria, and measles combined. Yet most people are unaware of pneumonia’s overwhelming death toll
- World Pneumonia Day helps to bring this health crisis to the public’s attention and encourages policymakers and grassroots organizers alike to combat the disease.
