Progress on developing a global action plan for pneumonia prevention and control

Pneumonia remains the biggest killer of children, particularly in the least developed countries with the highest child mortality, accounting for over 2 million deaths in those under 5 years of age annually. This is a greater number than deaths due to HIV, tuberculosis and malaria together in this age group. Control of pneumonia mortality is key to achieving the fourth millennium development goal. Even though effective interventions for reducing pneumonia mortality exist, they have not been systematically implemented in most developing countries. The Global Action Plan for Pneumonia prevention and control aims to advocate for a concerted action to control pneumonia mortality through the scaling up of known effective interventions, and proposes a set of strategies to achieve this.