Barely two years old, Rosario, ill for several days, struggles to breathe in a hospital in Manila. Thinking that the sickness was the work of evil spirits, Rosario was brought by his parents to a quack doctor, with burn marks on his chest from candle drippings used by the quack doctor presumably to send the evil spirits away. But the baby was not cured, prompting his parents to bring him to a doctor.

Rosario was diagnosed with pneumonia, a disease that affects three million Filipino children below five years old every year and kills 9,000 annually.

Luckily, Rosario was seen by doctors at the National Children Hospital before her condition turned to worse.

Pneumonia is an infection of the lungs that makes breathing difficult. Tobacco smoke, overcrowding, malnutrition and other kinds of pollution increase the risk of young children to develop this disease.

Dr. Lulu Bravo, Executive Director of the Philippine foundation for Vaccination and the country's anti-pneumonia champion stresses that the local figure on pneumonia does not include the over-all number of young pneumonia patients, a disease that is both preventable and treatable if health leaders would just focus on vaccines that would arrest the bacteria and illnesses that could lead to pneumonia through vaccination.

"There are more children dying from pneumonia than A (H1N1). Most children who contracted A (H1N1) died of pneumonia. All children are at risk for pneumonia although the capacities to undergo treatment varies," Bravo said, emphasizing the need for the Hib (Haemophilus influenza b) and the pneumococcus vaccine to be included in the Expanded Program for Immunization (EPI) of the Department of Health (DoH).

Bravo made the announcement in a conference that gathered various health sectors in celebrating the first world pneumonia day on November 2.

She is making a study on the incidence and experiences of young pneumonia sufferers in the country to convince authorities that urgent action is needed to save innocent lives. Her visits to patients in a dumpsite in Manila has been documented by the British Broadcasting Company and will be presented during the world pneumonia day that will be held in New York.

"Hib and the pneumococcal vaccine can help reduce the incidence of pneumonia and these have to be included in the EPI," Bravo said in a press conference organized by the Philippine College of Physicians recently.

Under the EPI, the government gives free vaccinations such as Diptheria, Pertussis-Tetanus vaccines and oral polio vaccines to children below 12 months of age. "These vaccines are already being given for free in Brazil and Mexico. I hope this will be available in the Philippines soon. This is important because there is a pneumonia strain that can kill within five days if left untreated."