Artigenda
World Pneumonia Day
Wanneer: jaarlijks, 12 november.
Every year, World Pneumonia Day takes place on November 12. A day dedicated to the fight against pneumonia worldwide.
Origin
The day has existed since 2009 and came about thanks to an initiative by The Every Breath Counts Coalition. This is a group of collaborating organisations working to eliminate pneumonia. Pneumonia is deadly in many countries around the world, due to a poor healthcare system or limited access to it. The Every Breath Counts Coalition’s campaign could count on the support of the World Health Organization (WHO) and UNICEF.
The choice of the slogan Every Breath Counts was not without reason. It was a fitting slogan, which fitted the theme and it was a well-known slogan. Let’s face it, who doesn’t know The Police’s song of the same name? The slogan is very similar to the song Every Breath You Take by the legendary British formation.
Through various channels, people draw attention to pneumonia not only on a day like today. People do so on other days too. On the twelfth day of November, there is more attention than usual. For instance, through the website. Besides the main website, accessible via worldpneumoniaday.org, there is also the website Stop Pneumonia. The GAVI Alliance is a partnership that works closely with the organisation doing their best to vaccinate children and the website is located at gavi.org.
1.6 million children
That it needs to be taken seriously is clear. Every year, 155 million children fall ill and 1.6 million die as a result of pneumonia. Most of the children die in the poorest parts of the world.
Solutions exist. It’s just that the solutions are not fairly distributed around the world. This day calls attention to all these issues.
