The All-Party Parliamentary Group on Pneumococcal Disease Prevention in the Developing World* is a cross-party group of MPs and Peers in the UK Parliament at Westminster.

APPG Mission Statement

The All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Pneumococcal Disease Prevention in the Developing World was formed on 23rd January 2007 in response to the urgent need to improve child survival and tackle the devastating impact of pneumococcal disease in the developing world.

The parliamentarians that constitute the APPG will work to raise awareness amongst their colleagues nationally, across Europe and around the world about pneumococcal disease, its prevention through vaccination, and international efforts to ensure sustainable financing.

Pneumonia is the leading infectious cause of child mortality worldwide, causing an estimated 1.9 million (or 19%) of the estimated 10 million child deaths each year. Pneumococcal disease is the leading cause of child pneumonia deaths, as well as the second leading cause of childhood meningitis deaths. It kills more than 1.6 million people, including up to one million children under age five every year. Pneumococcal disease is a growing and increasingly urgent global problem. HIV infected children are 20 to 40 times more likely to get pneumococcal disease.

Many of these deaths could be averted with the use of a simple vaccine.  Without a concerted effort on behalf of the global community, pneumococcal disease will continue to claim the lives of hundreds of thousands of children each year.

Investing in vaccines would contribute to achieving the United Nation’s Millennium Development Goal of reducing child deaths by two-thirds between 1990 and 2015.  The hope is that healthy children will, in turn, benefit from education and contribute to improved and more robust economic growth in developing countries.

The APPG aims to achieve its goals by working closely with civil society, academia, international organizations and industry.

*APPG on Pneumo Prevention.