Cape Town, Glenview, Lausanne, Montevideo, New York, Paris, Tokyo, November 18, 2015. World COPD Day is observed each year in November to highlight the burden of this chronic respiratory disease affecting more than 200 million people globally and causing about 3 million deaths annually. COPD is the sixth major cause of death and disability in low- and middle income countries and is projected to become the third cause of death by 2020. The economic burden is enormous, in the US alone total costs for COPD were estimated to be about 50 billion USD in 2010.

    Forum of International Respiratory Societies (FIRS) highlights the need to prevent pneumonia and strengthen management strategies globally as part of the “Decade of the Lung” initiative.

    Cape Town, Glenview, Lausanne, Montevideo, New York, Paris, Tokyo, November 12, 2015. The Decade of the Lung initiative, recently launched by FIRS, serves to highlight the importance of respiratory diseases globally. Amongst these, pneumonia is one of the five major respiratory diseases worldwide, responsible for substantial illness in children and adults. Pneumonia is the main cause of death in children under 5 years, of hospitalisation and of health care utilisation.

    Cape Town, Glenview, Lausanne, Montevideo, New York, Paris, Tokyo, 31 May 2015 - On World No Tobacco Day (31 May, 2015), the Forum of International Respiratory Societies (FIRS) is mobilising its members to raise awareness of the health benefits of plain packaging for cigarettes.  

    World No Tobacco Day is observed worldwide today and provides an opportunity to draw attention to the tobacco epidemic and the preventable death and disease it causes.