In a statement issued by the UN on Monday, the organization has revealed a plan according to which a total investment of $39 Billion, which comes to a mere $12.9 per child, could reduce the rapidly growing rate of death from pneumonia in children.

It has been reported that pneumonia kills more children than any other disease, and if the UN plan goes as proposed, the investment could save as many as 5.3 million lives by 2015 in the developing countries.

The money which has been requested to take forward the pneumonia drive is much less than that spent on diseases like AIDS and Cancer. If figures are to be believed, pneumonia kills more children in a year than AIDS, malaria and measles together.

"This is very simply the biggest killer people never hear about," said Orin Levine, a public health expert at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Health. Experts and pediatrics are now all supporting the UN in its drive which might just help countries all over the world bring the rate of child deaths due to pneumonia down.

While many are supporting the proposal, there are some who are quick to point out that in the current times of the economic crunch, it is important that the UN thinks about all the points before it puts in money for any new ventures. A final call on the proposal is now awaited.