There are three questions I often ask my team to keep strategy discussions on course: What do we want? Who can make it happen? And what do they need to hear?
As child health advocates huddle to plan for 2017, these foundational questions can ground us during times of political uncertainty, when concerns are swirling around how to protect progress made in global maternal, neonatal, and child health. I'm positive that the Global Coalition Against Child Pneumonia is equipped to stay the course...
American Leaders and Poor Children Deserve the Same Opportunity to Beat Pneumonia
As former President George H.W. Bush recovers from pneumonia, "we continue to advocate for adequate resources for families, governments, and communities everywhere to prevent and treat this illness," writes Kate O'Brien, Executive Director of the International Vaccine Access Center.
Five Inspiring Moments from 2016 for Fighting Child Pneumonia
The crisp start of a new year is the perfect time to take stock of last year's achievements. In particular, the effort to stop pneumonia-the leading infectious cause of death among children under five worldwide-saw five inspiring moments in 2016.
Global health professionals on the ground see first-hand how interventions to stop pneumonia and diarrhea impact children and their families. We need your stories about the real lives behind the data.
A January 2017 Lancet publication details the causes of mortality among children under 5 years of age on the global, regional and national levels. Coalition members should update materials using this scientific source and champion the researchers' message: Policymakers must "prioritise child survival policy and programmes based on their child cause-of-death composition," if they hope to achieve the Sustainable Development Goal of improving child survival by 2030.
A two-year study based in rural Malawi, one of the world's poorest countries, found that cleaner burning biomass-fuelled cookstoves did not prevent pneumonia in children under 5 years of age. This conclusion was reached after providing two biomass-fuelled cookstoves and a solar panel to almost 8,500 households and following more than 10,500 children.
This short video tells the story of how the cluster-randomized controlled trial was conducted.
The Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves issued a statement on the study's limitations. They write, "While this stove may offer a range of environmental, climate, and lifestyle benefits, the stove does not meet WHO indoor air quality guideline levels expected to reduce child pneumonia under the best performing laboratory conditions. This point is critical."
Partner Spotlight
Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, and Lifebuoy, Unilever's leading health soap brand, have launched an innovative partnershipto protect children under five from illnesses and premature death. By promoting handwashing with soap and immunization together, the partnership aims to improve and save many young lives in India.
Established in 2009, World Pneumonia Day is marked every year on November 12th to r
aise awareness about pneumonia, the world's leading infectious killer of children under the age of five; promote interventions to protect against, prevent and treat pneumonia; and generate action to combat pneumonia.
American Leaders and Poor Children Deserve the Same Opportunity to Beat Pneumonia
Five Inspiring Moments from 2016 for Fighting Child Pneumonia
