In response, WHO's Integrated Global Action Plan for the Prevention and Control of Pneumonia and Diarrhoea has set targets and a framework for tackling this challenge, an important component being to measure progress.1 In The Lancet Infectious Diseases, the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) 2016 Lower Respiratory Infections Collaborators provide further estimates of the morbidity and mortality from lower respiratory infections, principally pneumonia and bronchiolitis.2 They also provide estimates for lower respiratory infections caused by four microorganisms—Streptococcus pneumoniae, Haemophilus influenzae type b, influenza, and respiratory syncytial virus. According to the models presented, S pneumoniae was the leading cause of lower respiratory infection morbidity and mortality globally, contributing to more than 1 million deaths, more than the other three aetiologies combined. Interventions to enhance access to health care are needed to augment preventive measures. ...a greater understanding is needed of the role of individual respiratory pathogens (more than just the four included in this study), to provide more accurate estimates of disease burden and to better target interventions.