Thank you to everyone who took ONE’s pop quiz. On Monday, we asked readers to identify the leading cause of death for children under five – and the results were very interesting.

While it garnered just about 11 percent of votes, pneumonia is in fact the leading killer of children. Pneumonia is an infection of the lungs which is caused by many organisms, but globally, bacteria such as Hib and pneumococcus are estimated to cause more than half of all childhood pneumonia deaths. Every year, 2 million children under five years of age are killed by the disease (more than AIDS, malaria and measles combined), even though we have the tools we need to prevent and treat it, including immunizations and antibiotics.

On our quiz, the most popular choice with 59 percent of votes was diarrhea, the second leading cause of death for children under five. Below, in descending order, are the top causes of death for children under five and the accompanying percentage of votes each received:

1. Pneumonia (11%)
2. Diarrhea (59%)
3. Malaria (22%)
4. Measles (3%)
5. HIV/AIDS (6%)

If you found the results to be surprising, we thought you might. Despite its burden compared to other diseases, relatively little attention is given to pneumonia. ONE is part of the Global Coalition Against Pneumonia, a group of organizations that is trying to increase knowledge about the disease, and decrease the millions of avoidable childhood deaths. Together with fellow coalition members, ONE will observe the first-ever World Pneumonia Day on November 2nd. To learn more, visit www.worldpneumoniaday.org and continue to check out ONE’s blog for more posts about the disease.

Check out this post from our partner organization Save the Children, the first partner post in our Food Security in Focus series. This post focuses on how proper nutrition, particularly for children, is an essential component to achieving food security. Stay tuned to the blog for more entries over the coming month.

-Kara Arsenault

Today is my first day back at my office in Mozambique’s capitol city, Maputo. For the past week, I have been visiting our programs in the northern province of Nampula, where Save the Children is working to address high rates of childhood malnutrition.

In one rural community, I joined mothers and grandmothers who gathered to learn about nutrition from a trained community volunteer. The mood was animated and lively, with the women anxious to learn how to prepare food in a way that would make their children stronger. The women were a little shy when it came to asking me questions, but they were quick to smile.

During this gathering, the mothers learned how to cook enriched porridge. They had fun while preparing the food—there was a camaraderie among them that allowed them to let their guard down and just enjoy being together. They frequently sang while working.

Their children are part-and-parcel of who they are. They would never, for example, eat alone while their children played. When it came time to try the meal, each mother made sure her child got his or her fill before eating herself.

I am proud of the programs that Save the Children supports, like working with health centers and communities to prevent and treat malnutrition, helping farmers grow more nutritious food that they can sell on the market, encouraging exclusive breastfeeding, and helping caretakers feed their families well. And I’m proud of our emphasis on building community and government capacity to achieve these goals.

Together, these components ensure that families are food secure and that their well-nourished children thrive in economically-viable households. Here in northern Mozambique, we expect our USAID-funded work to significantly reduce the prevalence of malnutrition by 2011, the end of the three year program.

Malnutrition takes a big toll on children’s health. I’ve been working in this field for more than 10 years and I’m still humbled by the tireless efforts of health workers helping many dozens of people a day and parents walking hours to bring their sick children to clinics. To me, the workloads appear daunting and the conditions challenging. I learn a lot from my field visits, not only on the technical level of “what are we doing out there” and “how many results have we achieved,” but more importantly, on a human level, how people feel about their lives and their work. I come away feeling like our work is making a difference on both small and large scales. I always return to my desk with a renewed spirit of work.

-Tina Lloren, Regional Food Security and Nutrition Advisor, Africa Area Programs, Save the Children

Last week we alerted you to a new endeavor by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation called the Living Proof Project. Living Proof’s mission is to underscore all the great progress being made thanks to U.S. investments in global health.

Today I want to share with you two more videos produced for the Living Proof Project: one set in Egypt, and the other in Nicaragua. You can check out all of the videos here, and please share them with your friends and family! Our continued commitments to developing nations really do make a profound and positive impact.

Read more about the Living Proof Project here.

The U2 360 spaceship has landed in North America, and we’re off to a rockin’ start. Matt (who’ll be running the tour for most of the North American tour) met me in Chicago and we ran around town gathering T-shirts, wristbands, and our new tabling set up. Everything was in perfect order, including the weather. I’m told the odds of 4 September days of 72 degree sunny weather is an near impossibility in Chicago, but that’s what we got.

Our 30 volunteers were in good form, recruiting new members by the thousands. The biggest obsticale they ran into was that many of the fans were already ONE members. Not a bad problem to have!

I’m in Toronto now, and ready to get rolling on another two shows. I hope to see you at a show soon!

-Weldon Kennedy

TheStar.com: Canada to double aid to Africa
Canada will meet its commitment to doubling aid to Africa next week even as it shifts its focus away from the continent, International Cooperation Minister Bev Oda said today. The Canadian International Development Agency announced last month it would focus 80 per cent of its bilateral funding to 20 countries and regions. At a speech to the National Press Club yesterday Oda said the countries were chosen based on their real needs and their capacity to use aid effectively but also taking into consideration the priorities of Canadian foreign policy, which for the Conservative government means a focus on the Americas.

Financial Times: Brown’s Europe speech to build support
Gordon Brown will today make his first speech as prime minister to the European parliament at the start of a round-the-world trip designed to build consensus before next week’s G20 meeting. Mr. Brown, who gained a reputation as chancellor for his reluctance to attend Brussels meetings, will use today’s set-piece event to show his new willingness to engage fully with Europe.

New York Times: Vaccination: Vaccine Delays in Poorer Nations Raise Health Risks for Infants
Many infants in poor and middle-income countries get their vaccines weeks later than doctors recommend and therefore face increased risks of sickness and death, according to a new study in The Lancet Researchers at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Researchers studied health surveys from 45 countries, mostly in Africa and Latin America
Reuters: Malaria map shows where to target the disease
Eliminating malaria in many parts of the world where risk of the disease is high may be less difficult than previously thought, international researchers said on Tuesday. Using data collected from nearly 8,000 local surveys of infection rates, the team found that in many areas transmission rates are below the level at which controlling the disease with things such as bed nets is a real possibility, Simon Hay of Oxford University in Britain, who led the study, said.

Bloomberg: Deadly Tuberculosis Faces New Weapon as Vaccine Enters Tests
Scientists will start the largest study in almost a century on a new vaccine against tuberculosis, attempting to improve on an existing immunization that only partially protects against the deadliest bacterial illness. The study is a collaborative effort with the South African Tuberculosis Vaccine Initiative and is funded by Aeras and the Wellcome Trust, the U.K.’s largest charity.

-Chandler Smith