According to the World Health Organization, pneumonia still remains a leading cause of death in children under five, claiming more than 1.1 million lives among boys and girls every year ( WHO Pneumonia Fact Sheet, 2013 ). Pneumonia is most common in southern Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. It is known that pneumonia is a respiratory disease that affects the alveoli, which are the constituent part of the lungs. Normally the alveoli fill with air when a healthy person breathes, while those with pneumonia have the alveoli, which fill with fluid and pus; therefore the breathing process is painful and limits the body's consumption of oxygen. Pneumonia can be caused by several infectious agents, such as bacteria, fungi, and viruses. The most common are Streptococcus pneumoniae, Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib), Pneumocystis jiroveci. However, a significant percentage of all pneumonias are caused by Streptococcus pneumoniae. In fact, diseases caused by S. pneumoniae also include sinusitis, meningitis, otitis and some other problems, including septic arthritis, endocarditis and spontaneous bacterial peritonitis (WHO Pneumonia factsheet, 2013). The main purpose of this article is to familiarize the reader with Streptococcus pneumoniae and a particular disease it causes: pneumonia. Taxonomy, morphology, physiology, virulence factors of Streptococcus pneumoniae Streptococcus pneumoniae is a bacterium that has the following lineage: Firmicutes; bacilli; Lactobacilli; Streptococcaceae; Streptococcus; Streptococcus pneumoniae (NCBI database taxonomy, 2001). Streptococcus pneumoniae is a facultative anaerobe, which after performing a Gram stain appears as blue-black lancet-shaped cocci, mostly in pairs...... center of paper ... ...nt Streptococcus pneumoniae.2012. Retrieved from http://ezproxy.library.nu.edu.kz:2686/article/10.1007%2Fs11908-012-0260-x/fulltext.htmlPeters-Golden, M. Pneumonia (Chapter 15). 2010. Breathing in America: Disease, Progress, and Hope: p.155. Retrieved from http://www.thoracic.org/education/breathing-in-america/resources/chapter-15-pneumonia.pdf Pneumonia Fact Sheet. 2013. World Health Organization. Retrieved from http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs331/en/Poll, T., Opal, M.S. Pathogenesis, treatment and prevention of pneumococcal pneumonia. 2009. Lancet 374: p. 1543–56. Retrieved from http://www.umcutrecht.nl/NR/rdonlyres/A34BBBAE-1C56-42C1-B308-070A781CE82C/20643/2Review_pneumocpneumonia_poll_opal_lancet.pdfStreptococcus pneumoniae TIGR4. 2001. NCBI Database Taxonomy. Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/Taxonomy/Browser/wwwtax.cgi?id=170187