Friday, Nov. 12 is World Pneumonia Day. Pneumonia is a respiratory infection that kills more children under the age of five than any other disease – more than AIDS, malaria and measles combined. The lungs of a child with pneumonia fill with fluid until they can no longer function properly.  Warning signs are a cough, fever, and labored breathing. Left untreated, pneumonia can be deadly. Good news – the medical world knows how to protect and prevent children from catching pneumonia, and how to treat those suffering with this illness. Children’s lives can be saved with the widespread use of vaccines and improved access to antibiotics. Bad news – many boys and girls in developing countries lack access to life-saving vaccines and only 20% of children with pneumonia receives the antibiotics needed to help them recover.

Ways to get involved:
•    Wear blue jeans or blue clothing on World Pneumonia Day. (Children often turn blue when they have pneumonia.) Show that you care about the children who will die from pneumonia this year.

•    Send a PneumoniaGram to your public officials, asking them to make the fight against pneumonia a priority. The Global Coalition will compile and deliver these to world leaders with a unified message that the fight against pneumonia is one we must win.

•    Learn all that you can about pneumonia through the Global Coalition against Child Pneumonia. Spread the word through your networks.

•    Give to help vaccinate children, provide needed antibiotics, or train health workers to treat children after they get pneumonia.