Today, November 12, marks World Pneumonia Day, a day when the United Nations Secretary General's Every Woman Every Child health movement and the Global Coalition Against Child Pneumonia attempt to draw more attention to what is the leading cause of death for children under five, according to WorldPneumoniaDay.org.
In an effort to raise awareness about pneumococcal pneumonia in Latin America, pharmaceutical giant Pfizer has teamed up with the non-profit organization Fighting Infectious Diseases in Emerging Countries (FIDEC) to launch Vale La Pena. Pfizer chose Jeffrey Group, a public relations company geared towards Latin audiences, as their primary communications liason.
"With approximately 125,000 Latin Americans over the age of 50 dying each year from pneumococcal disease, we felt it was critical to lead an aggressive awareness campaign to help educate the public about their prevention options," said Mark Partridge from Pfizer in a press release. "We're happy to say we found a match with JeffreyGroup."
Vale La Pena means "worthwhile" and will attempt to bring vaccinations as well as more information about pneumococcal pneumonia to 14 Latin American countries. In six of those countries, five die from pneumococcal pneumonia every hour, and another 25 are hospitalized. Senior citizens are at an extreme risk, with most of the pneumonia infections in the United States in 2010 occurring to those over 65, according to Dr. Maria Luisa Avila, Costa Rica's former Minister of Health
Vale La Pena kicks off with a conference today at 9:00 a.m. in downtown Miami at the Hyatt Regency hotel including three prominent doctors specializing in the fields of infectious disease and pneumonia: Dr. Maria Luisa Avila; Dr. Carolina Herrera, President of the Chilean Society of respiratory disease; and Dr. Daniel Stamboulian, who founded FIDEC back in 2001, will all be headlining the conference.
Live Streaming - Vale La Pena Conference
You can watch a live stream of the Vale La Pena conference in Spanish at https://valelapena.streamlive.com.br/
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