In a first-ever simultaneous effort to protect children's from pneumonia and diarrhoea, World Health Organisation (WHO) and United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) today released the jointly developed Integrated Global Action Plan for the Prevention and Control of Pneumonia and Diarrhoea (GAPPD).

The GAPPD is based on the most recent data and evidence collected in a special series published in The Lancet and provides the most up-to-date strategies and evidence needed to significantly reduce childhood deaths and illness. The GAPPD will provide a framework to protect children, prevent disease, and treat children who become sick using proven interventions that have contributed to major reduction in child deaths.

This initiative shows the increasing focus WHO and UNICEF is taking to address the growing incidence of health risks that patients pose due to diarrhoea and pneumonia which claims the lives of almost two million children in a year. In India, diarrhoea accounts for about 12 per cent and pneumonia accounts for 23 per cent of deaths in children less than five years old.

The GAPPD calls on national governments to prioritise the fight against pneumonia and diarrhoea and is designed to inform country policies and practices. The report makes recommendations to the governments on interventions that will help reduce child deaths due to these diseases.

Non-governmental organisations and civil society organisations working around the globe to save children’s lives and improve health, have welcomed GAPPD. Many have committed to helping implement this new, integrated approach and to begin its work immediately with national governments, donors, multilateral institutions, the private sector, and other partners to make the global framework a reality in the countries and communities hardest hit.

According to Dr Naveen Thacker standing committee member of the International Paediatric Association and President Elect of the Asia Pacific Paediatric Association, “We know what happens when the world comes together to take on killer diseases as we have already eliminated the threat of small pox and are drawing close to eradicating polio through our ongoing efforts. Pneumonia and diarrhoea could be next, if we come together again to take action now by prioritising and implementing the integrated approach laid out in the GAPPD.”

Dr Madhumita Dobe, director and professor of Public Health, head of the Department of Health Education, AIIH&PH, Kolkata, and chairperson for the Indian Academy of Public Health (IAPH), pointed out that in India access to clean water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) remains a persistent problem. She added, “Diarrhoeal disease is largely preventable and improving access to WASH can play a huge role in preventing the condition, alongside treatment with oral rehydration solution and safe and healthy feeding processes.”

While endorsing this endeavour towards the GAPPD, Dr Dobe also added that IAPH and the Indian Public Health Association (IPHA) would definitely undertake every effort to disseminate the information through all their activities and communication opportunities to their members as well as national and international partners and collaborators. Importantly, she emphasised that this could also be one of the major theme areas for deliberation during the forthcoming World Public Health Congress in 2015 that the IPHA will be hosting in Kolkata.

Dr Dipika Sur, secretary general for the IPHA Kolkata pointed out that diarrhoeal disease also plays a significant role in persistent problems of malnutrition which in turn, can lead to stunted growth and impairment to future cognitive development, conditions which will have a detrimental impact on any child’s chances of succeeding in education, becoming fully economically active, or raising a healthy and productive family of their own.