The World Health Organization (WHO) sponsors the celebration of World Health Day on April 7 every year. the First World Health Assembly held by the WHO in 1948 declared that it would celebrate April 7 as World Health Day to mark the founding the WHO as well as to ensure that health concerns are highlighted too.
World Health Day celebrations help highlight pressing health concerns
Back in the mid-1990s, the global polio eradication program was highlighted by the WHO and promoted through World Health Day as its key theme. It is thanks to the efforts of non-governmental and government organizations and the awareness raised by various WHO-sponsored programs that a vast majority of the world’s population is completely polio free.
Themes of World Health Days target specific problems
Each year, the World Health Day is given a specific theme that centers on a particular kind of ailment that is threatening the well being of populations around the world. For example, the theme for the 2013 World Health Day was “Healthy Heart Beat, Healthy blood pressure” and the celebrations that accompanied the UN Day were focused on raising awareness about heart diseases, their causes, symptoms, how people could avoid such ailments, how people living with such ailments could take better care of themselves and what innovations in technology and medicine have been made in the segment.
World Health Days raise awareness about global health issues
If you ask anyone in the world today what is the biggest health concern that humanity is facing today, you are likely to be told that it is the HIV/AIDS epidemic. And while the disease is rather serious, it isn’t the only threat to human health. In fact, ailments like diabetes, hypertension, obesity, etc. have become “silent killers” that claim an increasing number of lives around the world each year while easily preventable health issues arising out of poor neo-natal and maternal care and poor sanitation are claiming millions of lives each year too. World Health Days try to highlight these global health issues as well.
