- Will develop tools for prevention, diagnosis and management of Pneumonia
New Delhi: Philips India, Philips Foundation (the platform of societal activities of Royal Philips) and Save the Children, India have joined hands to develop and prove low-cost innovative approaches for prevention, diagnosis and management of Childhood Pneumonia. Supporting the implementation of newly announced National Pneumonia guidelines, this is also in tune with India’s goal of Integrated Action Plan for Pneumonia and Diarrhoea (IAPPD). With ten years left to deliver on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) – and five years of the Global Action Plan for Pneumonia and Diarrhoea (GAPPD) targets to reduce Pneumonia deaths to less than 3 per 1000 births.
The two-year pilot titled ‘Project VISHWAS (Breath of Hope)’ is set to bring high-quality pneumonia care to approximately 90,000 under-five children across 45 urban wards in Rajasthan, and two rural blocks in Uttar Pradesh – two of the five worst-affected states through – M-health (mobile application based) technology for scale towards increased community awareness of Pneumonia.
Speaking on the collaboration, Daniel Mazon, Vice Chairman and Managing Director, Philips Indian Subcontinent said, “As a leading health technology company, Philips’ mission is to improve peoples’ lives through meaningful innovations. Philips is committed to supporting the reduction of cases of pneumonia in children under five years through this collaboration with Save The Children for awareness and on-ground activation.”
Bidisha Pillai, CEO, Save the Children India, added- “We are thrilled that a transformational partnership of this scale provides us with an ideal opportunity to address Save the Children’s global breakthrough (2030) -‘No child dies before his/her 5th birthday due to a preventable cause’ – by reaching 90,000+ most marginalized children with appropriate care for pneumonia”.
Globally, 802,000 children under the age of five died from pneumonia in 2018, with 127,000 deaths reported from India alone – a staggering one child every four minutes. Childhood Pneumonia is the largest contributor to under-5 deaths in India. With the absence of awareness on the disease and accessible quality treatments at both community and public health facility level, the most disadvantaged children are the worst affected. The collaboration will condense learnings and best-practices from the programme towards building an evidence-backed case for reducing Childhood Pneumonia in India on the merit of ‘shared value partnership’.