WORLD PNEUMONIA DAY

That this House supports the first International World Pneumonia Day, on 2 November 2009; notes that the inaugural World Pneumonia Day is being marked by an event at the House of Commons in London on 28 October 2009; congratulates the organisers of events in New York, Bangladesh, Nigeria, Kenya, Uganda, Australia and other countries to highlight the scourge of pneumonia which kills more than four million people every year, half of whom are children under the age of five years; supports the Global Coalition Against Pneumonia, which includes the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisations Alliance, PneumoADIP, Save the Children, Hedge Funds against Malaria and Pneumonia and other partners who have organised and helped promote World Pneumonia Day; hopes that World Pneumonia Day will encourage further support in the fight against pneumonia in the developing and developed world; further congratulates the Government for its role to date in supporting the Advanced Market Commitment for pneumococcal disease, the leading cause of pneumonia deaths; and calls on the Government to give continuing support to combat this terrible disease which claims the life of a child every 15 seconds.