World Health Day 2013 - It is time

World Health Day 2013 - It is time


World Health Day is celebrated on 7 April to mark the anniversary of the founding of World Health Organization (WHO) in 1948. Each year a theme is selected for World Health Day that highlights a priority area of public health concern in the world. The theme for 2013 is high blood pressure. Globally, around 40% of adults aged 25 and over had raised blood pressure in 2008.

Global Health Observatory (GHO) key messages:

- In 2011, 1 in 6 children were estimated to be underweight in developing countries. Reducing child mortality to achieve MDG 4: 6.9 millionchildren under five years of age died in 2011, nearly 800 every hour.

- Maternal and reproductive health: Every day in 2010, about 800 women died due to complications of pregnancy and child birth. 287 000mothers died in 2010

- HIV/AIDS 70 million people have been infected with the HIV virus and about 35 million people have died of AIDS
Progress has been made in recent decades, but is unequally distributed across regions and countries and within countries. Important challenges remain for the global goal to be achieved.

- Malaria occurs in 99 countries. An estimated 3.3 billion persons were at risk of malaria in 2010. >150000reported
deaths from malaria in 2010

- Tuberculosis: is second only to HIV/AIDS as the biggest killer worldwide due to a single infectious agent. 8.7
million new TB cases in 2011, but... - 41%in TB death rate between 1990 and 2011

- Water and sanitation: 783 millionpeople still relied on unimproved drinking water sources in 2010. 1.1 billion people practised open defecation in 2010

- Public health and environment: Proper environmental management is the key to avoiding a quarter of all preventable illnesses that are directly caused by environmental factors. The environment influences our health in many ways... 2 milliondeaths every year as a result of exposure to indoor smoke from cooking fuels. 88%of the diarrhoal deaths are due to unsafe water, inappropriate sanitation and lack of hygiene