UN says $39 billion needed to prevent pneumonia deaths

Associated Press
November 2, 2009
By Maria Cheng

LONDON — To fight pneumonia, the world’s top killer of children, United Nations officials say they need $39 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 with the aim of saving 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 Johns 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 Mary 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.

How to fight

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 Stevens 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.”

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