Lung Health Areas

Our focus is on the drivers and disesases that affect lung health: Tobacco, indoor air pollution and tuberculosis (TB). WLF also concentrates on child and maternal health in Africa. 

Tobacco control
Tobacco use kills more than six million people each year, making it the world’s leading preventable cause of death. An estimated one billion people will perish in the 21st century—most of them in the developing world—unless effective tobacco control measures are implemented quickly and aggressively.

Indoor air pollution
Acute respiratory infections (ARIs) are the leading global killer of children under five, with pneumonia alone responsible for almost 1.6 million deaths annually. Principally a disease of poverty, deadly ARIs most often occur where people are malnourished, where families cook with wood and other solid fuels, and where overcrowded living conditions are the norm.

Tuberculosis
One-third of the world’s population is infected with tuberculosis, two million people die from the disease every year, and drug-resistant TB, which raises the per-person cost of therapy from as little as US $20 to US $5,000, is on the rise. Early detection and directly observed therapy, short course (DOTS) offer the greatest hope for curbing this epidemic.