Pneumonia is the leading infectious cause of infant mortality worldwide, with 700,000 deaths per year. On average, more than two thousand children die every day from this disease, which is equivalent to the death of one child every 45 seconds. Most of these cases occur in low- and middle-income countries, and almost all deaths are preventable. In this context, the Second World Forum on Childhood Pneumonia, recently held in Madrid, has focused on intensifying the global effort to protect, prevent, diagnose and treat this infection in the most vulnerable.
The goal is to end preventable deaths of newborns and children under five years of age from pneumonia by 2030 and accelerate achievement of the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) of child survival. This has been the commitment of the more than 300 participants in this world forum: senior officials from 14 governments whose countries record 60% of all deaths from childhood pneumonia, members of the Spanish government, leaders of the United Nations and multilateral development agencies. , large donors, NGOs, private companies and the scientific community.
“The tools exist that make it possible to prevent children from dying of pneumonia, but we won't be able to do it if we don't ensure that all children are protected with vaccines that fight pneumonia and have access to prompt, accurate diagnosis and effective treatment with antibiotics, oxygen and therapeutic food to fight malnutrition. A global commitment is necessary to make these tools available to the most vulnerable boys and girls”, said Gustavo Suárez Pertierra, president of UNICEF Spain. And it is that three out of four deaths from childhood pneumonia are of babies under one year of age.
The COVID-19 pandemic has caused the biggest setback in childhood vaccination in almost three decades. It is estimated that, between 2019 and 2021, 67 million boys and girls were totally or partially unvaccinated and that vaccination coverage levels decreased in 112 countries, according to data from the State of the World's Children 2023. Specifically, only the 51% of children worldwide receive all three doses of the pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV), which prevents pneumonia, among other diseases. In 2021, 25 million children did not receive vital vaccines.
In fact, childhood vaccination was halted in almost all countries due to the enormous pressure suffered by health systems, the diversion of resources dedicated to immunization towards COVID-19, the shortage of health personnel and the measures of lockdown. “We all know that there is no progress without health. There is no economic growth without strong health systems. And that is why we have to face the diseases that kill the most and pneumonia is, without a doubt, one of them”, declared the director of the International Area of the ”la Caixa” Foundation, H.R.H. the Infanta Cristina.
Vaccines save millions of lives each year, but after the pandemic, there are still too many children in the world who are unvaccinated and at risk. The historic decline in vaccination has put many more children at risk of preventable diseases like pneumonia. However, as the experts who met in Madrid pointed out, lost ground could be recovered on a large scale by vaccinating and protecting millions of children who were unable to do so due to the pandemic crisis and those who had not previously been vaccinated. .
“It is unacceptable that, having the diagnostic tools, preventive vaccines and adequate treatments, we continue to regret so many preventable deaths from pneumonia in low-income countries. It is time to redouble our efforts so that pneumonia does not continue to lead all infant mortality statistics," said Quique Bassat, ICREA researcher at the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal), another of the organizations participating in the forum together with the bill foundation
Currently, 54 countries are far from reducing child deaths to the levels required to achieve the SDGs - 80%, in Africa - objectives that involve reducing deaths from pneumonia. If these countries succeed in increasing coverage of PCV, measles and DTP vaccines above 90%, reduce child malnutrition and exposure to air pollution, and ensure that children with pneumonia are promptly diagnosed and treated with antibiotics, oxygen and therapeutic foods when needed, deaths from pneumonia could be reduced by more than 80%.
Improving health in low- and middle-income countries is one of the most effective interventions to combat the vicious circle of poverty and disease, which is why it is one of the priorities of the ”la Caixa” Foundation.
In 2008, the organization became the first private partner of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance in Europe, the first public-private alliance that fights against infant mortality, with the aim of contributing to increasing the equitable use of vaccines in countries of low and medium income and thus reduce the mortality of the smallest.
In addition, in 2008, the ”la Caixa” Foundation launched the Alliance for Child Vaccination at the same time to give companies, customers and employees, and all people who wish to help, the opportunity to join the fight against infant mortality to save the lives of children through micro-donations.
Since then, the Alliance has continued to grow stronger. ISGlobal, the Barcelona Institute for Global Health, joined it as a strategic partner to contribute its scientific and academic expertise.
The ”la Caixa” Foundation has always been clear about its universal health strategy. For this reason, the entity's foundation has managed to strengthen international strategic alliances in global health, focusing on two of the main causes of infant mortality: pneumonia and malaria. Since 2008, nearly eight million children have been vaccinated against pneumonia in Mozambique and Ethiopia, thanks to all the contributions channeled through the Alliance.
The commitment of the ”la Caixa” Foundation has also been favored through its link with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Both foundations have managed to multiply each donation by four with parallel contributions to increase efforts against the mortality of children. Thus, the figure of more than 39 million euros in donations has been reached, which includes not only those made to the Alliance, but also contributions from the ”la Caixa” Foundation and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. And it is that vaccines and donations help the greatest global health challenge: protect and save lives.
