• Pneumonia kills 1.5 million children under five every year; that’s one child every twenty seconds.
• There are affordable, proven solutions: we know that education about breastfeeding, early diagnosis and vaccines can stop children dying and that all three require ready access to trained health workers.
• There is thus no excuse why pneumonia continues to claim so many lives; urgent action is required to put an end to this situation.

On November 12^thSave the Children is joining forces with the Global Coalition against Child Pneumonia to mark World Pneumonia Day, calling for governments to take decisive and urgent action to address this critical issue. Pneumonia is the single biggest killer of children in the world today, claiming the lives of 1.5 million children under five every year, and yet preventing and treating it is simple and cost effective. It isn’t happening because vital health workers are either not in place or they lack the antibiotics and training to be effective.

Show your support this World Pneumonia Day by downloading this twibbon Click!, and help us stop this readily preventable and treatable disease. Follow Save the Children’s activities across the world on twitter using the #healthworkers and #WPD2011 hashtags, and get as many people involved in raising awareness about this global killer.

Find out about Save the Children’s activities around Globe: www.everyone.org

Find out more about the Global Coalition against Child Pneumonia: worldpneumoniaday.org

ABC report: Pneumonia, The Global Killer