World Pneumonia Day Has Grown From Idea To Global Movement

In this Huffington Post opinion piece, Orin Levine, executive director of the International Vaccine Access Center at Johns Hopkins University, reports on how World Pneumonia Day, inaugurated in 2009 by financier Lance Laifer, has grown from an idea into a movement, writing, "World Pneumonia Day 2010 is engaging governments, child health organizations and advocates in an effort to spotlight the leading killer of children" and "perhaps even more exciting is the way this movement has grown in just one year, engaging everyday citizens in the effort to raise awareness in creative ways."

Levine highlights a number of individuals and organizations working to raise awareness about and fight pneumonia and concludes, "Just over a year ago, together with a small group of colleagues, we launched the first World Pneumonia Day. It was just a spark of an idea -- and most of what happened on that day was driven by the efforts of the original coalition members. Today, this effort has truly gone global -- and much of the effort is coming from committed individuals and institutions that we had never heard of prior to their involvement" (11/11).