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UN plans to vaccinate 130 mln children
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Another vaccination campaign is also gearing up for pneumonia the world's most deadly disease for children.
The World Health Organization and UNICEF have unveiled a plan to vaccinate 130 million children in poor countries against the disease in the next 6 years.
WHO estimates that among the 9 million children who die from disease annually, 2 million are killed by pneumonia. That's more than AIDS, malaria and measles combined. Data also shows that 98 percent of the children who die from pneumonia are from developing countries.
WHO says the best defense against pneumonia is vaccination. The relatively low-priced vaccine could save at least half the 200 million children killed by the disease each year. In the past, the biggest challenge was making the vaccine available to children in developing countries.
WHO and UNICEF have planned to vaccinate 130 million children from more than 40 developing countries by 2015. The global health body needs 39 billion US dollars to carry out the plan.
Pneumonia is an inflammatory illness of the lung. It can result from a variety of infections including bacteria, viruses and fungi.
Pneumoniae and haemophilus influenza type B are the most common sources of children's infection. Both of them could be prevented through vaccination.
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