Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Cure five trillion cases of childhood pneumonia


For the price of the Iraq War, we could have saved five trillion children from dying of pneumonia. 

Pneumonia, a lung infection that can be caused by a variety of microorganisms,  is responsible for 19 percent of the deaths of children worldwide.  It can be treated with a dose of antibiotic syrup costing 58 cents.  Treating 5 trillion children for pneumonia would cost $2.9 trillion, which is $100 billion less than Joseph Stiglitz and Linda Bilmes' estimate of $3 trillion for the total cost of the Iraq War.