GAVI – The Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation. HEALTH: Vaccine targets world's biggest child-killer | Global | Gambia | Kenya | Niger | Rwanda | Sierra Leone | Uganda | Yemen | South Africa | Aid Policy | Children | Early Warning | Education. Read this article in: عربي Rapidly scaling up the vaccine could avert 700,000 deaths by 2015 and seven million deaths by 2030 NAIROBI/KILIFI, 14 February 2011 (IRIN) - An estimated 700,000 deaths could be averted by 2015 with the widespread use of a vaccine against pneumonia and other pneumococcal diseases that are the world's biggest child-killer.
More than half a million children younger than five die from pneumococcal disease every year, according to the UN World Health Organization (WHO). It accounts for 18 percent of child deaths in developing countries. "The global introduction of pneumococcal vaccination marks a historic milestone in global health," Matshidiso Moeti, the WHO's assistant regional director for Africa, said at a press briefing ahead of the launch in Kenya on 14 February. "This single vaccine offers the world an unprecedented opportunity to reduce child mortality significantly. " Challenges kr/jk/mw.
HEALTH: Pneumonia action falling short | Afghanistan | Angola | Bangladesh | Burkina Faso | DRC | Ethiopia | Indonesia | Kenya | Niger | Nigeria | Pakistan | Tanzania | Uganda. Read this article in: عربي Pneumonia patient in Pakistan, which has one of the world's 15 highest caseloads of the disease BANGKOK, 11 November 2010 (IRIN) - Efforts to treat and prevent pneumonia are falling short in the 15 countries responsible for three-quarters of the world’s annual deaths from the disease, according to a “report card” issued by the US-based International Vaccine Access Center (IVAC) at Johns Hopkins University. Pneumonia kills more children under five every year – 1.6 million – than measles, HIV/AIDS and malaria combined, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
The report’s lead author and IVAC’s executive director, Orin Levine, said unimplemented policies were at fault. “We have safe effective proven interventions that can decrease under-five deaths by two-thirds, but they are simply not reaching the children who need them the most.” "The beauty of pneumonia is that interventions are at hand. Pt/mw. S and Antimicrobial Therapy (ANTIBIOTIC.ru)