World Health Day 2016 : Themes, Information, Date, list

What is World Health Day ?

The World Health Day is a global health awareness day celebrated every year on 7 April, under the sponsorship of the World Health Organization (WHO).

In 1948, the WHO held the First World Health Assembly. The Assembly decided to celebrate 7 April of each year, with effect from 1950, as the World Health Day. The World Health Day is held to mark WHO's founding, and is seen as an opportunity by the organization to draw worldwide attention to a subject of major importance to global health each year. The WHO organizes international, regional and local events on the Day related to a particular theme. World Health Day is acknowledged by various governments and non-governmental organizations with interests in public health issues, who also organize activities and highlight their support in media reports, such as the Global Health Council.

World Health Day is one of eight official global public health campaigns marked by WHO, along with World Tuberculosis Day, World Immunization Week, World Malaria Day, World No Tobacco Day, World Blood Donor Day, World Hepatitis Day, and World AIDS Day.

 

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World Health Day 2016 theme: Beat Diabetes

The WHO is focusing this year's World Health Day, on 7 April 2016, on diabetes - a largely preventable and treatable non-communicable disease that is rapidly increasing in numbers in many countries, most dramatically in low- and middle-income countries. Simple lifestyle measures have been shown to be effective in preventing or delaying the onset of type 2 diabetes, including maintaining normal body weight, engaging in regular physical activity, and eating a healthy diet. Diabetes can be controlled and managed to prevent complications through diagnosis, self-management education, and affordable treatment. The WHO estimates about 350 million people in the world have diabetes, with the disease the direct cause of some 1.5 million deaths. The goals of WHD 2016 are (1) scale up prevention, (2) strengthen care, and (3) enhance surveillance

• The theme of World Health Day 2011 was “Anti-microbial resistance: no action today, no cure tomorrow”.


• The theme of World Health Day 2012 was “Good health adds life to years”.


• The theme of World Health Day 2013 was “Healthy heart beat, Healthy blood pressure”.


• The theme of World Health Day 2014 was “Vector-borne diseases”.


• The theme of World Health Day 2015 was “Food safety” (with 5 keys; Key 1: Keep clean, Key 2: Separate raw and cooked food, Key 3: Cook food thoroughly, Key 4: Keep food at safe temperatures, Key 5: Use safe water and raw materials).


• The theme of World Health Day 2016 is “Scale up diabetes prevention, strengthen care, and enhance surveillance”.

 

Goal of World Health Day 2016: Scale up prevention, strengthen care, and enhance surveillance

The main goals of the World Health Day 2016 campaign will be to:

Increase awareness about the rise in diabetes, and its staggering burden and consequences, in particular in low-and middle-income countries;

Trigger a set of specific, effective and affordable actions to tackle diabetes. These will include steps to prevent diabetes and diagnose, treat and care for people with diabetes; and

Launch the first Global report on diabetes, which will describe the burden and consequences of diabetes and advocate for stronger health systems to ensure improved surveillance, enhanced prevention, and more effective management of diabetes.

World Health Day 2016: Key messages

WHO is focusing the next World Health Day, on 7 April 2016, on diabetes because:

1. The diabetes epidemic is rapidly increasing in many countries, with the documented increase most dramatic in low- and middle-income countries.


2. A large proportion of diabetes cases are preventable. Simple lifestyle measures have been shown to be effective in preventing or delaying the onset of type 2 diabetes. Maintaining normal body weight, engaging in regular physical activity, and eating a healthy diet can reduce the risk of diabetes.


3. Diabetes is treatable. Diabetes can be controlled and managed to prevent complications. Increasing access to diagnosis, self-management education and affordable treatment are vital components of the response.


4. Efforts to prevent and treat diabetes will be important to achieve the global Sustainable Development Goal 3 target of reducing premature mortality from noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) by one-third by 2030. Many sectors of society have a role to play, including governments, employers, educators, manufacturers, civil society, private sector, the media and individuals themselves.

The WHO has described five keys to safer food:

• Key 1: Keep it clean


• Key 2: Separate raw and cooked food


• Key 3: Cook food thoroughly


• Key 4: Cook food at safe temperatures


• Key 5: Use safe water and raw materials.

Why World Health Day is Celebrated

World Health Day celebration focuses on increasing the life expectancy by adding good health to the lives of people and promoting healthier living habits. Youths of the new era are also targeted by this event to prevent and make them healthy to make the world healthy and free from AIDS and HIV.

Disease spreading vectors like mosquitoes (malaria, dengue fever, filaria, chikungunya, yellow fever and etc), ticks, bugs, sand flies, snails and etc are also spotlighted by the WHO to make the world free from a wide range of diseases caused by parasites and pathogens. It provides better prevention and cure from the vector-borne diseases spread by vectors and travelers from one country to other. WHO supports various health authorities on global basis to make their own efforts for the public health problems to enhance better life without any diseases.

Some of the objectives of why it is being celebrated yearly are listed below:

• To increase the public awareness of various causes and prevention of high blood pressure.


• To provide detail knowledge of getting prevented from various diseases and their complications.


• To encourage most vulnerable group of people to frequently check their blood pressure and follow medications from the professionals.


• To promote self care among people.


• To motivate the worldwide health authorities to make their own efforts in creating the healthy environments in their country.


• To protect families living in the disease vulnerable areas.


• To teach travelers and send them a messages about how to get protected from the vector-borne diseases while travelling.