CNS: World Health Day

Showing posts with label World Health Day. Show all posts

Unless we end inequities, we will fail to achieve Health For All

“Everyone is trying to apply the human rights lens. But unfortunately on key matters of equity, a lot many communities right now are in the rear-view mirror and not being observed through the lens of equity and human rights. This pandemic is uneven around the world and uneven in its impact. It has peeled away the bandages from old wounds of our society and it has also revealed and driven new equities. We are not doing a good job in ensuring that the basic human rights approaches are being upheld- right to access to health, right to personal dignity. In some cases Covid-19 has been used as a means of denying people their rights. Yes, we have seen great examples of community resilience and people and CSOs coming together in solidarity to fight this epidemic. But, if we are to give grades on how we are doing in leaving no one behind right now we get an F” said Dr Michael Ryan, Executive Director of the World Health Organization (WHO) Health Emergencies Programme, who also leads the team responsible for international containment and treatment of Covid-19.

This Podcast features conversation on corona virus disease (COVID-19) and how it is impacting Health For All. Panel of experts incldue: Dr Trupti Gilada-Baheti, Infectious diseases expert; Dr Tara Singh Bam, Deputy Regional Director (Asia Pacific), International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease (The Union); Dr Jameel Zamir, Director of Programmes, International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF), East and South East Asia and Oceania region; Laura Wedeen, Associate Vice President of the International Programs, Population Reference Bureau (PRB); and Chu Viet Nga, Programme Manager, HelpAge International in Vietnam.

Be welcome to listen on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, TuneIn, aCast, Podtail, BluBrry, and other podcast streaming platforms.

World Health Day Webinar: Health For All and corona virus disease (COVID-19)

Watch the recording | listen to podcast

The most hard-hitting message around World Tuberculosis Day 2018 for us was on twitter by Shirin Aliabadi, who tweeted that Dr Richard Horton (Editor in chief of The Lancet) said, politics is, in many ways, the ultimate determinant of our health. Bad decisions made by politicians determine our well-being in so many ways.

[Listen or download this audio podcast] This CNS Podcast episode features 3 Indian film-stars Suniel Shetty, Sonu Sood and Suhail Khan, and Executive Director of International Union Against TB and Lung Disease (The Union) Jose Luis Castro, along with Deepti Chavan, who is not only a TB survivor but also champions the cause for improving TB care for all those in need. They were key speakers at the TB Free India Summit held on World Health Day 2017 in Dharamshala, Himachal Pradesh. [Listen or download this audio podcast]

[Podcast] Collective action can help accelerate the pace to #endTB, says Rhea Lobo at #IndiaVsTB

[Listen or download the audio podcast] Rhea Lobo, a noted international award winning film-maker and a freelance journalist, is also a TB survivor. She shared her insights on how to accelerate the pace to end TB at the potentially-game changing inter-sectoral meet, TB Free India Summit (#IndiaVsTB) at Dharamshala, Himachal Pradesh, on World Health Day 2017 [Listen or download the audio podcast].

World Health Day: No substitute to healthy mind

Shobha Shukla, Citizen News Service - CNS

Image credit: CNS: citizen-news.org

We all aspire to be healthy and at times go to great lengths to ward off sickness. The fight against disease begins early on in life with responsible parents ensuring that their kids are administered all available vaccinations ((although there is a small lobby that is against this important preventive measure); as much as possible; they feed them nutritious diet (facing stiff competition from fast food chain offerings) and there is a growing consciousness about the benefits of physical exercise too (despite the allure of the idiot box and the computer).

Ministry of Health, WHO urges on blood pressure tests

Sam Banda Jnr, Malawi
(First published in The Daily Times, Malawi on 10th April 2013): THE Ministry of Health and World Health Organisation (WHO) have called on adults in the country to check their blood pressure and adhere to medical advice when found with high blood pressure. The advice follows this year's World Health Day theme which is focusing on high blood pressure. In a statement released on Saturday, Secretary for Health Charles Mwansambo and WHO Resident Representative Felicitas Zawaira also advise people to practice healthy lifestyles to prevent and control high blood pressure and its complications.

Shobha Shukla - CNS
Could you ever imagine that a string of beads can act as a contraceptive device to avoid unintended pregnancies? Well CycleBeads just does that by helping women to follow the Standard Days Method (SDM)—a natural fertility awareness method of family planning. It consists of a string of 32 colour coded beads, provided with a rubber ring that can move over the beads. Even illiterate women can use this tool to keep track of their menstrual cycle to know when they are fertile and to monitor their cycle length and thus avoid unintended pregnancy.

Special on World Health Day

In India, population more than 60 years of age in 2001 was 6.9% which is now increased to 8.3% (2011) and is estimated to be 17% (30 crores) by 2050. If today’s young India is not made healthy then in future these would suffer from large number of diseases in their older age. It’s true that neonatal and child mortality rate is decreasing and life expectancy is increasing and therefore the population of elderly is also on rise.

According to The Lancet, non-communicable diseases (NCDs), mainly heart disease, stroke, diabetes, cancers, and chronic respiratory disease, are responsible for two out of every three deaths worldwide and the toll is rising. A landmark global alliance between leading scientists and four of the world's largest NGOs brings together evidence from a 5-year collaboration with almost 100 of the world's best NCD experts and proposes a short-list of five priority interventions to tackle the increasing global crisis. Reducing tobacco and salt use, improving diets and physical activity, reducing hazardous alcohol intake, and achieving universal access to essential drugs and technologies have been chosen for their health effects, cost-effectiveness, low costs of implementation, and political and financial feasibility.

Photo credit: Italian writer Mario Biondi
Slogan about gross national happiness
on a wall in the School of
Traditional Arts in Thimphu, Bhutan

World Health Day, 7th April
Since times immemorial, the human race has sought health, happiness and wealth —not necessarily in that order. Wars have been fought and lives have been lost due to the overwhelming desire of possessing them. These three basic ingredients are thought to be essential for a meaningful life. Ironically, in our crazy race for securing 'happiness and health', we at times are actually moving away from it. Life has become so hectic and busy that it is taking its toll on our health and wellbeing. More and more people seem to be suffering from a host of health related problems, courtesy different types of stresses of everyday life, which are more often self created.

TB drug resistance can be overcome with a comprehensive, multi-pronged strategy: The Union
Some 440,000 cases of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) are identified each year, causing at least 150,000 deaths from a disease that should be curable. Extensively drug-resistant TB (XDR-TB), which has an even higher fatality rate, has now been reported in 69 countries. "Drug-resistant TB is the end result of a number of different failures, each of which, on its own, is solvable with existing tools. To address all of the issues and stop the spread of this disease requires a comprehensive, multi-pronged strategy, such as The Union has developed", says Dr Nils E Billo, Executive Director of the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease (The Union).

World Health Day – 7 April 2011
With emerging drug resistance gradually making existing array of curative drugs ineffective, treatment options for a range of health conditions is getting severely limited. This year, the World Health Day (7th April) has put this theme in the bull's eye: Combat drug resistance - no action today, no cure tomorrow. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), antimicrobial resistance is not a new problem but one that is becoming more dangerous; urgent and consolidated efforts are needed to avoid regressing to the pre-antibiotic era.

In lead up to the World Health Day (7th April), interview with the President-elect 2012 of the India's largest association of surgeons has a coherent message: Make hospitals safe in emergencies. "We have been neglecting the safety of health facilities and the readiness of healthcare workers who treat those affected by emergencies. Health centres and staff are critical lifelines for vulnerable people in disasters - treating injuries, preventing illnesses and caring for people's health needs" said Prof (Dr) Rama Kant, President-elect 2012 of Association of Surgeons of India (ASI).