* In 2015, pneumonia accounted for 15 percent of all deaths to children under age 5 worldwide. An estimated 2,500 children a day die from pneumonia, most less than 2 years old. (UNICEF Aug. 2016) More children die from pneumonia than ebola, malaria, tuberculosis, HIV and Zika combined. (WHO 2016)
* In the United States, nearly 500,000 children are hospitalized for acute lung infections annually, a third of them with pneumonia; 228 deaths occurred among those under age 5 in 2013. (CDC)
* The most common cause of bacterial pneumonia in children is Streptococcus pneumoniae; Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib) is the second most common, both generally transmitted through coughing or sneezing.
* In 2010, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Prevnar 13 (PCV13) for routine vaccination of children 6 weeks to 5 years old for the prevention of 13 types of pneumococcal pneumonia; it replaced the earlier year 2000 version, PCV7. Between 2000 and 2015, the vaccines reduced the incident rate by between 60-90 percent in the United States (CDC) and 47 percent worldwide (UNICEF). 102.txt
Rick Good spent ten years in the newspaper business, including with The News & Observer (Raleigh, NC) and The Greenville News (Greenville, SC). He co-wrote, with Melinda Coleman, Rutledge to Riley: Governors of South Carolina, 1776–Present (Published by The Greenville News), and is the author of Mind Games Trivia #1 (Amazon). He has recently spent 15 years creating original trivia content through Sounds Good Mobile Entertainment and continues that with his new company, SGME Software. He edits The Smart Reader’s money, real estate, and business coverage.