The World Health Day is commemorated on every 7th of April. The day is dedicated to people’s health and the welfare of the community at large.
The World Health Organization (WHO) established World Health Day to direct attention toward concerning health issues along to encourage universal access to healthcare.
World Health Day Theme 2024
The theme for this year’s World Health Day is “My health, my right.” The theme stresses the fact that everybody anywhere should have access to important health services, education, and information.
It should also include uncontaminated water, clear air, good nutrition, quality housing, and decent working and environmental conditions.
The WHO’s Council on the Economics of Health for All reports that at least 140 out of the United Nations 193 Member States acknowledge health as a human right in their constitutions. However, advancements toward systemizing this right with relevant laws promising access to health services are at a standstill.
https://x.com/WHO/status/1776731609158259051
In 2021, over half of the world’s population (4.5 billion people) was not fully covered for essential health services.
Also Read: Global Health Security Summit addresses health challenges
Importance of World Health Day
In the last few years, the fundamental right to healthcare has been emphasized both in terms of inequities brought forward by the COVID-19 pandemic along in the vast press coverage of attacks against healthcare workers and facilities in conflict zones.
As UN Martin Griffiths reported this year, “Global health is under threat like never before.”
Therefore, our health is an important element to longevity, creative and dignified lives. Minor issues could also add to people’s miseries who do not have a financial safety net.
In 2019, around 2 billion people were faced with financial hardship because of out-of-pocket healthcare costs, which also includes 344 million people living in extreme poverty.
The World Bank and WHO report that, for the 344 million people, these healthcare costs were not related to dangerous cases. This could be avoided with enhanced coverage for outpatient medicines and the exemption for out-of-pocket fees for low-income patients.
In doing so, this would lead to betterment in the overall health of the mentioned patients as they would not have to miss treatments and medications. This would allow them to live their lives and livelihoods with a higher success rate related to health.
Concern
This year’s World Health Day theme matters to all the countries where Concern works. Countries that Concern is working with builds quality health services, access to safe drinking water and sanitation services, receiving nutritional support, and maintaining resilience against the impact of climate change.
An example of Concern working with countries includes Pakistan, where WASH programs have adopted a combined approach to improve the sexual and reproductive health of women and adolescent girls by making sure that women and girls have access to menstrual hygiene management (MHM) materials, MHM information and education, and MHM supportive facilities.
Concern also has operations in Yemen, where it is focusing on Health and Nutrition and Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) projects that are constructed to lower the risk of cholera and other waterborne diseases.
So far, 650 families have been reached through three internally displaced persons camps in the Aden Governorate.
