By Christopher Elias

Dear Editor:

More than 30 years ago, few imagined Seattle would become a center for the development of ideas and technologies to improve the health of the world's people.  But through the work of organizations like the Seattle Biomedical Research Institute, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, PATH, and others, the world looks to Seattle for leadership and innovation in global health.
 
A recent UNICEF report celebrates that fewer children are dying every day as compared to mortality figures from 1990, the baseline date for the Millenium Development Goals (MDGs).  Seattle should be proud of our contribution to this achievement.  For example, PATH has helped more than 50 million children receive vaccines for Japanese encephalitis since 2006.  And the Uniject® autodisable injection device, born in PATH's Seattle shop, replaces reusable needles that can spread disease and allows health workers with minimal training to deliver critical medications and vaccines. 

But UNICEF also noted that much more needs to be done to prevent the deaths of children before their fifth birthday in time to meet the MDGs by 2015.  Their report highlights that a focus on solutions for two diseases - pneumonia and diarrhea - is key to making this happen.

They are right.  Pneumonia and diarrhea are the two leading killers of young children around the world.  This surprises most people, who guess that AIDS or malaria hold that dubious honor.  In the same way that the global health community and policymakers have generated new momentum on those health challenges, we need to boost the recognition of and resources for pneumonia and diarrhea.

This is why PATH is supporting the first-ever World Pneumonia Day on November 2nd, joining more than 50 organizations from around the world to bring attention to a disease that has become known as the forgotten killer of children.  And why PATH and many of these same groups have also mobilized a call to action to combat diarrheal disease.

To read the entire op-ed, please visit The Seattle PI's website.