New evidence base for child pneumonia

A new investment into researching the causes of pneumonia could see a whole host of new information about the disease being unearthed.

The John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health is scaling up it operations in its Pneumonia Etiology Research for Child Health (PERCH) section, with the causes of pneumonia in up to ten countries being re-evaluated.

Orin Levine, associate professor in the Bloomberg School's Department of International Health, and principal investigator of the project, said: "Our current information on pneumonia etiology is about to become obsolete.

"By applying modern tools with standardized methods, we will be able to provide new, precise information to guide the development of new vaccines and treatments."

He added that many methods of looking at the disease have not changed too much from the days of Louis Pasteur.

New investment has came from sources including the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, continuing the traditions of the school, which was started by a donation at the bequest of John Hopkins more than a century ago.