Lung Health Areas
Our focus is on these areas of lung health: tuberculosis (TB), tobacco control, child and maternal health, asthma, tuberculosis, and HIV/AIDS.
Tobacco
control
Tobacco use kills more than
five million people each year, making it the
world’s leading preventable cause of death.
An estimated one billion people will perish in
the 21st century—most of them in the
developing world—unless effective tobacco
control measures are implemented
aggressively.
Child and
maternal health
Acute respiratory
infections (ARIs) are the leading global killer
of children under five, with pneumonia alone
responsible for almost 1.6 million deaths
annually. Principally a disease of poverty,
deadly ARIs most often occur where people are
malnourished, where families cook with wood and
other solid fuels, and where overcrowded living
conditions are the norm.
Asthma
Asthma affects more
than 300 million people, kills 200,000
annually, and will take a worsening toll over
the next two decades as poor countries
urbanize. Although treatment is available to
prevent attacks, or halt those that occur,
medication can cost 20 percent or more of a
poor family’s income.
Tuberculosis
One-third of the
world’s population is infected with
tuberculosis, two million people die from the
disease every year, and drug-resistant TB,
which raises the per-person cost of therapy
from as little as US$20 to US$5,000, is on the
rise. Early detection and directly observed
therapy, short course (DOTS) offer the greatest
hope for curbing this epidemic.
HIV/AIDS
The deadliest
infectious disease in the world today, HIV/AIDS
kills more than two million people die each
year. Almost one-third of HIV-infected
individuals also have TB, yet HIV and TB
programs have not historically been integrated.
Raising awareness of the deadly synergy between
these diseases, and coordinating their
prevention and treatment are vital.