World Pneumonia Day, 12th November

World Pneumonia Day aims to spread awareness about the disease, which is regarded as the world´s biggest infectious life-threatening disease for children under the age of five, and to promote vaccinations to fight against it. The principal message of the day is to emphasize the importance of oxygen for our body. The symbol is a pearl ribbon.

The Global Coalition against Child Pneumonia created the first World Pneumonia Day in 2009 with the intention of educating the public around the world about the severity of the disease. The main initiative is to protect children from the disease and to ensure that every child has access to appropriate preventive and treatment measures. The general motto of each annual campaign is “Healthy Lungs for All”.

South Asia and Africa are the most affected regions, and they get extensive support from WHO, UNICEF and their partners. On the website Child Health Spotlights, UNICEF in cooperation with Save the Children, provide country-specific data (e. g. for  Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Peru Angola, Ethiopia, Kenya, Niger, and South Sudan) about primary healthcare systems and financing, incidence rate of getting infected, trends in mortality rate, preventive measures, immunization and other statistics  in a form of downloadable infographics and fact sheets.

EALTHY teaching resources on lungs and pneumonia

• Lung infections: anatomy of lungs, respiratory symptoms, pneumonia (reading lesson plan, A2-B1)
• Contagious diseases (crossword, B2-C1)

EALTHY teaching resources on other respiratory conditions

• FeNO testing for asthma (reading and vocabulary worksheet, A2-B1)
• Asthma assessment and treatment (speaking and vocabulary lesson plan, A2-B1)
• Tuberculosis (listening and speaking lesson plan, B2-C1)
• Oxygen therapy (speaking, reading and writing lesson plan, B1-B2)

Resources and tips on further reading

https://nationaltoday.com/world-pneumonia-day/

https://stoppneumonia.org/latest/world-pneumonia-day/

Read more about the history of the day and treatment development, the facts about this disease, and reasons for raising awareness about it.

Blogs, reports and research related to specific countries about the importance of oxygen, vaccines, preventive measures and approaches to diagnosing the disease.

In 2013, WHO and UNICEF published an Integrated Global Action Plan for the Prevention and Control of Pneumonia and Diarrhoea