Catching pneumonia before it kills

By Guest Column Israel21c —— Bio and Archives February 11, 2015

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UNICEF calls pneumonia “the forgotten killer of children.”

This severe infection in the lungs causes more deaths in kids under five years old than AIDS, malaria and measles combined. Treatment is simple and effective, but in developing countries the problem is diagnosing it in the first place. Two Israeli startups with promising products to meet the acute need for diagnosing pneumonia recently won seed grants from Grand Challenges Israel, a program launched last year by MASHAV-Israel’s Agency for International Development Cooperation with the Office of the Chief Scientist at the Israeli Ministry of Economy and the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office. “In Israel, there is a large community of developers and entrepreneurs whose innovations are focused primarily on Western European and North American markets,” said Israeli Chief Scientist Avi Hasson at the grant award ceremony on January 18. More...