Pneumonia Remains a Leading Cause of Child Mortality
Forum of International Respiratory Societies Calls for Immediate Action to Prevent Childhood Pneumonia on World Pneumonia Day 2025
November 12, 2025
Despite significant progress being made in recent years, pneumonia remains a leading cause of child mortality, claiming hundreds of thousands of young lives every year. On World Pneumonia Day November 12, 2025, the Forum of International Respiratory Societies (FIRS), of which the American College of Chest Physicians (CHEST) is a founding member, calls for urgent, coordinated action to prevent pneumonia deaths, particularly among children under five and other high-risk populations.
According to the latest Global Burden of Disease (GBD 2023) estimates, pneumonia killed 2.5 million people globally in 2023, including 610,000 children under 5 and 79,000 children aged 5–14 years (GBD 2023, IHME). Among newborns (<1 month), approximately 186,000 deaths were reported. The UN Inter-agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation (IGME 2021) reports similar trends, with 726,000 children under 5 dying from pneumonia, including 538,000 children aged 1–59 months and 188,000 newborns (UN IGME 2021).
FIRS President Professor Guy Marks said, “Pneumonia is entirely preventable and treatable, yet it continues to claim the lives of too many children in low- and middle-income countries. We have effective vaccines and preventive tools—including new interventions against RSV—but access remains limited. Every child deserves the right to survive and thrive.”
Major pathogens causing pneumonia deaths in children under 5 include (GBD 2023):
- Streptococcus pneumoniae: 197,000;
- Klebsiella pneumoniae: 75,000;
- Pseudomonas aeruginosa: 46,000;
- Escherichia coli (E. coli): 33,000;
- Staphylococcus aureus: 31,000;
- Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV): 27,000; and
- Influenza virus: 25,000.
For newborns (<28 days), the leading causes are K. pneumoniae (34,000), S. pneumoniae (24,000), and RSV (9,000) (GBD 2023).
High-risk countries bear the largest burden. For children under 5, 60% of deaths occur in just 10 countries: India (129,000), Nigeria (94,000), Pakistan (31,000), the Democratic Republic of the Congo (22,000), Niger (22,000), Ethiopia (13,000), Chad (12,000), Indonesia (11,000), Tanzania (9,000), and Angola (7,000; GBD 2023). Globally, leading risk factors for children include malnutrition, household air pollution, lack of handwashing, exposure to tobacco smoke, and high environmental temperatures (GBD 2023).
FIRS calls on governments, global partners, and donors to take immediate steps to accelerate child survival through:
- Expanding access to lifesaving vaccines: Pneumococcal conjugate vaccines (PCVs) and newly available RSV vaccines and long-acting monoclonal antibodies.
- Strengthening health systems to ensure that timely diagnosis, antibiotics, and oxygen therapy reach every child.
- Addressing key risk factors such as malnutrition, household air pollution, and low immunization coverage.
- Promoting maternal and newborn health through vaccination, breastfeeding, and neonatal care programs.
- Supporting research and innovation to develop cost-effective interventions for those in low-resource settings.
- Committing to global targets: The Global Action Plan for Pneumonia and Diarrhoea (GAPPD) aims for no more than three pneumonia deaths per 1,000 live births by 2025, equivalent to approximately 400,000 deaths (WHO GAPPD 2021).
“Pneumonia deaths are preventable, but action must be immediate and equitable. With the right investments and policies, we can reach global targets and save hundreds of thousands of children’s lives this decade,” Marks concluded.
About the American College of Chest Physicians
The American College of Chest Physicians® (CHEST) is the global leader in the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of chest diseases. Its mission is to champion the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of chest diseases through education, communication, and research. It serves as an essential connection to clinical knowledge and resources for its 18,000+ members from around the world who provide patient care in pulmonary, critical care, and sleep medicine. For information about CHEST and its family of journals, including the flagship journal CHEST®, visit chestnet.org.
About the Forum of International Respiratory Societies (FIRS)
The Forum of International Respiratory Societies (FIRS) is an organisation comprised of the world's leading international respiratory societies working together to improve lung health globally. The goal of FIRS is to unify and enhance efforts to improve lung health through the combined work of its more than 70,000 members globally. FIRS comprises the American College of Chest Physicians (CHEST), American Thoracic Society (ATS), the Asian Pacific Society of Respirology (APSR), Asociación Latinoamericana de Tórax (ALAT), European Respiratory Society (ERS), International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease (The Union), Pan African Thoracic Society (PATS), the Global Initiative for Asthma (GINA), and the Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (GOLD).