World Health Day 2024
- 7th of April -

Dr Kshetrimayum Kala Singh *

It is health that is real wealth and not pieces of Gold and Silver- Mahatma Gandhi
Happiness is the highest form of Health- Dalai Lama

The World Health Day is celebrated by the people all across the world every year on 7th of April under the leadership of World Health Organisation to draw the mass people's attention towards the importance of global health.

A proposal was put forward by Brazil and China for the creation of an organization to deal with health related issues all over the world. The proposal presented in 1945 stated this body should be totally independent from any Government powers and focus equally on health related issues of the whole world. In 1946, establishment of WORLD HEALTH ORGANISATION (WHO) was approved in New York.

The World Health Assembly was held for the first time in the year 1948 in Geneva by the WHO where it was decided to celebrate the World Health Day annually on 7th April. It was first celebrated worldwide in the year 1950 as the World Health Day.

It is an annual event being celebrated for years to raise the common public awareness towards health issues and concerns. A particular theme is chosen to run the celebration and to take care of the health for the whole year.

The theme for this year is “My health, my right”. Global Polio Eradication was also one of the special themes of the year 1995 of World Health Day. From then, most of the countries have become free of fatal diseases whereas in other parts of the world it’s awareness level has increased.

This year's theme “My health, my right” is very significant to every individual. We are human beings and it is our compulsory duty to keep our health in good condition in order to live a longer life. So let us make a promise to keep my health healthy without the order from anybody or under any circumstances. I will decide and will independently do all the necessary steps for keeping my health healthy.

It is my right and my duty to follow all the necessary steps for this goal. So, I will take good diet, good drinking water, will avoid using cigarettes, pan, talab, jalda and alcohol, will be far away from stress and strain, will keep the surrounding environment in good condition, will cooperate with my family and society for keeping good relation, will take precautions from infectious disease and always will check-up my body for the non-communicable cardiovascular diseases.

Some of the objectives of why world health day is being celebrated yearly are listed below:

o To increase the public awareness of various causes and prevention of high blood pressure.
o To provide detailed knowledge of getting prevented from various diseases and their complications.
o To encourage the most vulnerable group of people to frequently check their blood pressure and follow medications from the professionals.
o To promote self care among people.
o To motivate the worldwide health authorities to make their own efforts in creating the healthy environments in their country.
o To protect families living in disease vulnerable areas.
o To teach travellers and send them messages about how to protect from vector-borne diseases while travelling.

World Health Day celebration focuses on increasing 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 the world healthy and free from AIDS and HIV.

Diseases spreading vectors like mosquitoes (malaria, dengue, filarial, 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 disease caused by parasites and pathogens.

It provides better prevention and cure from the vector-borne disease spread by vectors and travelers from one country to another. WHO supports various health authorities on a global basis to make their own efforts for the public health problem to enhance better life without any diseases.

World Health Day is celebrated worldwide by the government, non-government, NGOs including various health organizations at many places by organizing programmes relating to the public health issues and awareness. Participated organizations highlight their activities and support through the media reports by means of press releases, news, etc. Health authorities from different countries take part in the celebration with their pledges in order to support health issues worldwide.

World Health Day targets all the health issues on a global basis for which several programs are organized yearly by the WHO and other related health organizations at various places like schools, colleges and other crowd places. It is celebrated to remember the establishment of the World Health Organization as well as draw the attention of people towards the major health issues in the world.

WHO is a vast health organization working under the UN for addressing health issues on a global basis. Since its establishment it has addressed serious health issues including chickenpox, polio, smallpox, TB, leprosy etc from various developing countries. It has played a significant role aiming to make the world a healthy world. It has all the statistics about global health reports.

The World Health Organization has been involved in mobilizing many health efforts the world over. Describing what medicines are essential for public health, and which diseases to give a particular focus to.

The movement to eradicate smallpox started in 1958, initiated by pressure from Viktor Zhdanov, the Deputy Minister of Health for the then USSR. In 1979 the WHO declared that smallpox had in fact been eradicated, making it the first disease in history to be eliminated by the dedicated efforts of humans.

World Health Day is one of 11 official global health campaigns run by the World Health Organization, along with World Hepatitis Day, World Tuberculosis Day, World Chagas Disease Day, World Patient Safety Day, World Immunization Week, World No Tobacco Day, World AIDS Day, World Malaria Day, World Blood Donor Day and World Antimicrobial Awareness Week.

Mr. Erasmus, the 16th century Dutch philosopher said that prevention is better than cure. Preventive methods help us in saving from deadly and fatal diseases which can't be cured.

“It is easier to stop something happening in the 1st place than to repair the damage after it has happened.”