Fighting for Breath

The fight against pneumonia deaths is being lost – and the children on the frontline are paying with their lives.

“Over the course of today, 2,500 young lives will be lost to pneumonia. My hope is that policy-makers around the world will read this report, reflect on its content and be seized by what Martin Luther King called ‘the fierce urgency of now’.” – Kofi Annan, former UN Secretary-General

Pneumonia is the number one infectious killer of children. It claimed some 920,000 lives in 2015 – more than malaria and diarrhoea combined. The fatality count is coming down much more slowly than for other major killers. Changing this picture is vital if the world is to achieve the 2030 development goal ambition of ending preventable child deaths.

Fighting for Breath (PDF) turns a spotlight on the inequalities, policy failures and indifference holding back progress. It challenges governments, international agencies, private companies and non-governmental organisations to come together in a coalition committed to saving lives.

Collectively we have it in our power to save 5 million young lives over the next 15 years. This report sets out how we can do it.