More than 700,000 children die before their fifth birthday every year from pneumococcal diseases.

"The most avoidable tragedies should touch the deepest places of conscience." — UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown

The arithmetic is stark and unrelenting. In any year:

  • 130 million children are born worldwide
  • 27 million will not be vaccinated
  • 9.7 million will die before their fifth birthday
  • 2.5 million will die from diseases vaccines can prevent

A handful of infectious diseases are the top killers of small children. They include:

  • Malaria
  • Pneumococcal disease, which causes pneumonia and sepsis, or blood poisoning
  • Rotavirus (diarrhea)

Learn more about GAVI’s efforts to accelerate a vaccine for pneumococcal disease.

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2.5 million children will die this year from vaccine preventable diseases. That’s greater than the entire population of Paris.