These diseases - malaria, tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS, diarrhea, and pneumonia - won't go away by themselves. More resources are necessary to eradicate them and for resources to be invested, awareness about these diseases needs to be raised. Acute respiratory infections kill a significant number of people each year - in children under five, these are the most common cause of death in developing countries. One would think that such a disease would get increased attention in this day and age. Yet, the fact is that it doesn't. People are just not aware. In a survey we conducted, less than 10% of people surveyed knew that acute respiratory infections kill the most number of people each year. (Click here to see the results of our survey)

The Global Fund for AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria helps raise billions of dollars to fight these three diseases, accumulating over $7 billion in just two years. In their 6th round of fund raising, $453 million was raised for 36 countries to combat AIDS, $202 million for 19 countries to combat malaria and $190 million for 34 countries to combat tuberculosis (See How the Money is Spent). The total life time budgets for AIDS amounts to over $1 billion; for malaria, it's over $400 million, and for tuberculosis, it's nearly $500 million. Pneumonia is nowhere to be seen.

In fact, when we searched the internet, it was hard to find specific funds created for acute respiratory infections and pneumonia. However, recently, new initiatives have been created to help prevent millions of deaths each year caused by lower respiratory infections. Italy, the United Kingdom, Canada, Russia, Norway, in conjunction with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, are funding a $1.5 billion project called AMC or Advanced Market Commitment, an innovative approach involving financial engineering which subsidizes future purchases in developing countries of a vaccine that is not yet produced (The Economist, 17 February 2007). The AMC project creates incentives for vaccine manufacturers to develop a pneumococcal vaccine.

Consider this - the number of search results found after searching for specific disease key words. A search was conducted on February 20, 2007 and yielded the following results.

	Number of Results Found
Search Keywords	Google	Yahoo	Ask	Dogpile
AIDS	213,000,000	150,000,000	35,480,000	89
Cancer	211,000,000	239,000,000	63,550,000	99
HIV/AIDS	49,800,000	47,800,000	7,027,000	82
Obesity	30,600,000	31,700,000	9,446,000	83
Malaria	22,500,000	13,600,000	3,420,000	83
Tuberculosis	21,300,000	10,600,000	3,239,000	56
Pneumonia	16,800,000	10,200,000	3,104,000	33
Diarrhea	15,900,000	13,000,000	4,016,000	49
Acute Respiratory Infections	2,170,000	2,050,000	613,100	85
Lower Respiratory Infections	1,390,000	1,860,000	537,000	57

When the disease names were searched for on the internet, the disparities are startling. The results for AIDS on Google were 213 million – compare this with the results for pneumonia – less than 17 million. Even further behind is lower respiratory infections, at 1.4 million. Searching for AIDS resulted in 12 times as many search results on Google.com compared to pneumonia. The trend continues with Yahoo, Ask, and Dogpile. Searches conducted for leading causes of death in developed countries (heart disease and cancer) and a current major medical problem in the developed world (obesity) yielded more results than pneumonia. The three search terms related to acute respiratory infections - pneumonia, lower respiratory infections and acute respiratory infections - are in the bottom four results.

These figures seem to agree with the results of a survey conducted on over 100 Middle and High School students at the International School of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia - where 85% reported most often hearing about HIV/AIDS in the media, while 60% thought that HIV/AIDS was the disease that killed the most people yearly. But why is so little attention paid to pneumonia and acute respiratory diseases? It is undeniable that HIV/AIDS and malaria are deadly diseases. Yet, yearly, acute respiratory infections kill more people. Acute respiratory infections kill more children than AIDS, malaria, and measles combined. Yet, the world is giving them scant attention. The world’s focus is on malaria and HIV/AIDS. This same focus must be given to acute respiratory infections. In the survey conducted at the International School of Kuala Lumpur 60% thought HIV/AIDS was the disease that kill the most people yearly.

While pneumonia and acute respiratory infections have nearly been “eradicated”, so to speak, from the minds and hospitals of the developed world, they still remain a problem today. Pneumonia is a killer in the third world, a disease which anyone can get but usually only kills those who can hardly afford to feed themselves. Pneumonia kills millions in countries on the other side of the globe. When someone in the developed world is unlucky enough to get it, a course of antibiotics or even just bed rest usually solves the problem. This is not so in many developing countries, where the antibiotics are not readily available, or if they are available, inaccessible or unaffordable.

The reason behind this is that awareness has not been raised, and hence support for solving this disease is insufficient thus far. HIV/AIDS is often mentioned in the media and around the world - and rightly so. Because of increased awareness, the battle against this devastating disease has begun. Financial support for research to find a cure and support to help the poor access otherwise costly medicine have been forthcoming from government, nongoverment and philantrophic organizations. But it is not the only global killer. HIV/AIDS and malaria are diseases that dominate the media around the world – the same cannot be said of the biggest killer in poor countries.

However, there is an acute respiratory infection that received significant attention in the world's media. Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, otherwise known as SARS, is caused by an infection by the SARS-associated corona virus. First discovered and recorded in March 2003, it spread across the world. During that year, 8000 different cases were documented, and 744 resulted in death. Strict quarantine efforts successfully prevented its further spread.

SARS, whose symptoms include chills, muscle aches, head aches, a dry cough, and loss of appetite, usually leads to pneumonia. It is spread through close personal contact with an infected person, such as touching, hugging, kissing, and sharing eating utensils. Health workers are also at high risk, unless they prevent themselves from touching contaminated substances. Those who have physical contact with excretions are also at high risk of infection.

So far, there are no known cures for SARS. Even though there are no known cures, 90% of victims of the SARS virus, recover with sufficient support and care.

SARS is an example of an acute respiratory infection that received worldwide attention and research as it threatened the entire world (and today, there still is no cure). Information about SARS was displayed on national news broadcasts, in airports, travel was structured around it - these all led to a halt in transmissions and infections. The same attention is now being given to avian flu because of its enormous potential to kill people worldwide.

However, for pneumonia, this attention does not exist. It remains the silent killer in the third world.

Michael G (14) and Patrick G (12), Doors to Diplomacy 2007