Cairo, Egypt, May 9, 2011: “Alashanek Ya Balady” Association for Sustainable Development (AYB) has launched an initiative to combat Pneumonia, targeting at risk, underprivileged children, under the name “Protection is Their Right”. The initiative is carried out in cooperation with the Egyptian Pharmaceutical Students' Federation (EPSF) and under the auspices of the Egyptian Pediatrics Association (EPA).
Every 20 seconds, one child’s soul is lost to Pneumonia. This amounts to 5,500 child deaths every day, and a staggering 2 million child deaths every year from a preventable and treatable disease. This figure succeeds AIDS, Malaria and Measles combined, according to the UNICEF and World Health Organization (WHO) report “Pneumonia, the Forgotten Killer of Children”, issued in 2006. Most people are unaware of Pneumonia’s overwhelming death toll, for this reason, Pneumonia has been overshadowed as a priority on the global health agenda.
According to WHO statistics, Egypt is one of the top 15 countries accounting for three quarters of childhood Pneumonia cases worldwide. Moreover, fighting pneumonia is a critical strategy for countries working to reach the Millennium Development Goals by the year 2015, which include a goal to reduce child deaths under the age of five by two-thirds the rate of the year 1990. AYB’s mission through this project is to increase health awareness in the Egyptian society and participate effectively in the reduction of child mortality in Egypt through vaccination against this disease.
The main objective of the campaign is to raise funds to vaccinate at least 10,000 high risk children in 10 governmental hospitals with the PCV7 vaccine and establish a vaccination clinic at the EPA’s premises to vaccinate underprivileged children on a free basis. It is considered difficult for families in underprivileged communities to acquire the PCV7 vaccine due to its high cost, and yet it is the one shot that can save a child’s life.
Through this initiative, AYB aims to create consciousness throughout the Egyptian society of World Pneumonia Day, which is dedicated to raise awareness of pneumonia as a public health issue and help prevent the millions of avoidable child deaths from Pneumonia that occur each year.
The third World Pneumonia Day will be in November 2011 and for the first time ever to be celebrated in Egypt. Until this date, AYB’s Education and Awareness Program, in cooperation with EPSF and AYB franchises, will be carrying out extensive activities throughout the country to raise awareness and gather funds for the vaccines and vaccination clinic. A health caravan will be focusing on spreading the word about the campaign in underprivileged communities all over Egypt, in addition to other awareness activities and events which are set to take place soon.
