Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is caused by disorders of the heart and blood vessels, and includes coronary heart disease (heart attacks), cerebrovascular disease (stroke), raised blood pressure (hypertension), peripheral artery disease, rheumatic heart disease, congenital heart disease and heart failure. The major causes of CVD are tobacco use, physical inactivity, an unhealthy diet and alcohol abuse.

The WHO Programme on Cardiovascular Diseases works on prevention, management and monitoring of CVD globally. It aims to develop global strategies to reduce the incidence, morbidity and mortality of CVD by effectively reducing CVD risk factors and their determinants; developing cost effective and equitable health care innovations for management of CVD; monitoring trends of CVD and their risk factors.

Economic transition, urbanisation, industrialisation and globalisation bring about lifestyle changes that promote heart disease. These risk factors include tobacco use, physical inactivity, unhealthy diet. Life expectancy in developing countries is rising sharply and people are exposed to these risk factors for longer periods. Newly merging CVD risk factors like low birth weight, folate deficiency and infections are also more frequent among the poorest in low- and middle-income countries.

Pneumonia is a form of acute respiratory infection that affects the lungs. The lungs are made up of small sacs called alveoli, which fill with air when a healthy person breathes. When an individual has pneumonia, the alveoli are filled with pus and fluid, which makes breathing painful and limits oxygen intake.

Pneumonia is the single largest infectious cause of death in children worldwide. Pneumonia killed an estimated 922000 children under the age of 5 in 2015, accounting for 15% of all deaths of children under five years old. Pneumonia affects children and families everywhere, but is most prevalent in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. Children can be protected from pneumonia, it can be prevented with simple interventions, and treated with low-cost, low-tech medication and care.

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