PIP: Although acute respiratory infections cause 19% of all deaths in children under age 5 years and 8.2% of all disability and premature mortality, acute lower respiratory infections receive only 0.15% of the research and development budget for health. A major international conference, co-sponsored by the World Health Organization and held in Canberra during July 7-10, 1997, to discuss the prevention and treatment of acute respiratory infections was attended by experts from all over the world. The conference included 35 workshops and 27 plenary sessions. It was resolved at the conference that in developing countries, too many children continue to die from pneumonia. Children in such countries should be immunized immediately with H. influenzae type b vaccine, while conjugate S. pneumoniae vaccine should be made available soon. Furthermore, the role of unconjugated S. pneumoniae vaccine needs to be defined and antibiotic treatment for pneumonia provided to all children. Drugs have little effect in developed countries upon viral upper respiratory infections. Evidence on respiratory infections should be studied, guidelines developed and promoted for antibiotic prescribing, and the use of influenza and pneumococcus vaccines increased. Globally, as US$8 billion annually is wasted upon symptomatic treatment, more money needs to be invested in researching acute respiratory infections.