Global action plan for prevention and control of pneumonia (GAPP)

Pneumonia kills 1.8 million children under five years of age every year, more than any other illness, in every region of the world. In spite of its huge toll, relatively few global resources are dedicated to tackling this child killer. In response to this situation, WHO and UNICEF developed the Global Action Plan for the prevention and control of Pneumonia (GAPP). The aim of the GAPP is to increase awareness of pneumonia as a major cause of child death and spur action to deal more effectively with the problem. In this document, WHO and UNICEF summarize the global situation with respect to pneumonia, and point to the need to get it under control in order to achieve the Millennium Development Goal on child mortality. The document outlines a vision, and sets out specific goals and targets to be achieved. It projects the cost of scaling up key interventions of proven benefit such as exclusive breastfeeding, vaccination and treatment of pneumonia, and outlines the priority actions that are required of various stakeholders to ensure progress. The GAPP calls to action a broad coalition of global and national policy-makers, donor agencies and civil society to scale up efforts to reduce the burden of pneumonia and provides guidance on how this can be done.