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Overview |
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For the first time in history, more than half of the world’s population lives in cities, with over one third living in slum areas without adequate basic services, such as schools, water and sanitation, roads, shelter, safe food and quality health care services. It is estimated that by 2030 two thirds of us will be living in urban areas.
"Urbanization and Health” was selected as the theme for World Health Day 2010 in recognition of the effect that urbanization has on our collective health globally and for us individually. Improving health in urban settings cannot be achieved by the ministries of health or WHO alone, but goes beyond the roles and responsibilities of government and calls for active contribution and participation of civil society, community groups, academia, and each and every individual.
World Health Day 2010 is not a one-day event, but rather a long-term annual campaign based on cities’ needs and priorities. Community, government, nongovernmental organizations and all partners should join hands to identify gaps and find solutions for local problems.
Let's work together to make our cities healthier. |
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Message from the Regional Director |
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The theme of World Health Day this year, 2005, touches every heart. It is a plea for everyone to make use of every event, every voice, every occasion, to make every mother and child count. In several of the 22 countries of the Eastern Mediterranean Region, pregnancy and childbirth are among the leading causes of death for women of childbearing age, and many children do not even reach their fifth birthday. What happens to these women and children is a question we should all ask ourselves. This year’s slogan, “Make Every Mother and Child Count” reflects the reality that today, governments—including those in this Region—and the international community need to make the health of women and children a higher priority. Healthy mothers and children are the key to healthy, prosperous societies.
Women play a critical role in the promotive and preventive fields of health, being charged with maintaining and promoting the health of the family. It is the woman who is in control of the selection of food for her family and its preparation in line with health standards, who trains her family in matters of personal hygiene and solid waste disposal, and who decides whether she or anyone in her family needs help from health services. It is critical that women are educated, allowed access to resources and involved in decision-making in order to carry out the priceless services they provide. In fact educational attainment has been found to be the single most influential factor in reducing child morbidity. Education results in greater autonomy for women in
directing family matters, less fatalistic attitudes in responding to child illness, and more awareness of health risks and behaviours that reinforce health.
Each year 53 000 mothers in the Region die in childbirth and 1.5 million children under the age of five years die from a handful of preventable and treatable conditions. Up to three-quarters of deaths during the first month and at least 30% to 40% of all infant deaths could be avoided through improved maternal health, adequate nutrition during pregnancy, appropriate management of deliveries, appropriate care of newborn infants and birth spacing.
A woman in poverty is not able to access the educational opportunities of her wealthier counterparts in society and therefore does not have the necessary knowledge to attend to the health needs of herself or her family. She may not realize the significance of immunization, and what impact it has on her children, or understand the health hazards of improper waste disposal, or be able to secure
the nutritional needs of her family. Without the knowledge and resources to ensure the health and strength, and therefore the productivity, of her family, the family becomes embroiled in a vicious cycle of poverty and outside intervention is needed to break the cycle.
There is a need to strengthen political and technical leadership and commit financial resources to reach every mother and child with an essential and affordable package of proven interventions. Concentrated efforts are needed to recruit, train and deploy sufficient numbers of skilled health care providers. The process of improving maternal and child health in the Region faces many challenges that have slowed progress in recent years, such as the difficult circumstances of conflict experienced in some countries, which have tremendously affected the health of the population, especially the vulnerable groups of children and mothers.
World Health Day is an occasion to stimulate action; we need all of you to help galvanize national governments, international donors, nongovernmental organizations, the private sector, the media, community-based groups, and each other to learn about, plan for and undertake sustainable activities that aim to save lives and improve the health and wellbeing of mothers and children.
Let us all join together in celebrating healthy mothers and children—the real wealth of societies—on 7 April 2005.
Dr Hussein A. Gezairy, Regional Director for the Eastern Mediterranean |
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Message from the Regional Director |
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This year, World Health Day celebrates all the members of the health workforce who have always been and will keep on “Working Together for Health” to save lives and promote health of humankind. The health workforce includes both trained health professionals, such as doctors, nurses, midwives, pharmacists, dentists, laboratory and other technical assistants, as well as non-health professionals working in health systems, such as managers, economists, accountants, information technologists and other administrative support workers. It also includes those individuals who have gained some health care knowledge and skills and volunteer to support health in families and communities.
The increasing demand for health, cost cutting, and underinvestment have resulted in overburdened, underpaid and unsupported health workers. There is a need for a closer look into the problems facing planning, education, training and management of health workers There is a growing health workforce crisis in many parts of the world. Across the developing world, health workers are facing economic hardship, deteriorating health infrastructures and social unrest. In the industrialized world, with increase in life span and chronic diseases, there is a need for more doctors and health workers. This compounds the problem for developing countries, as more and more health workers are attracted to migrate from the developing to the industrialized countries. In the Eastern Mediterranean Region, disparity in supply and demand, geographic maldistribution between urban and rural settings and imbalance in the number of different categories of professionals, represent another dimension of the crisis. Furthermore, even in the countries where ratio of health workers to population is high, the number of expatriate workers exceeds that of the nationals. This situation deprives these countries of a sustainable national capacity, an issue that should be addressed seriously in the long term.
Health systems around the world are now facing a triple crisis of workforce shortages, low morale and fading trust. WHO estimates the current global health workforce to be around 60 million women and men. It is estimated that there is a global shortage of millions of health workers. In the Eastern Mediterranean Region, there are currently more than 2 million health workers, and the immediate need exceeds an additional 2 million workers. The development of human resources for health has consistently been a vital area for WHO’s collaborative work with Member States of the Eastern Mediterranean Region since its founding more than half a century ago. The Regional Office supported countries to develop capacities to produce health workers in priority areas through community orientation of education and strengthening of national planning and management.
An important issue that relates to the investment in human resources for health is allocation of additional funds by governments to the health sector as an investment in overall development. In this regard, WHO headquarters in collaboration with its six regional offices has produced a global report entitled Tough Choices: Investing in Health for Development––Lessons from Developing Countries.
There can be no doubt, the changing roles and functions of health professionals in response to the changing health systems and population health needs demand continuous review, and reform of the process of human resources development.
“Health workforce in crisis”, the theme of this year’s World Health Day, marks the beginning of a decade that will be devoted to human resources development as a priority, by WHO and Member States, and the strategies and action that can be taken to address the various issues. I would like to call on all countries to invest more in this field and to make effective use of global, regional and intercountry cooperation and support in order to achieve the dramatic improvements needed in balance and efficiency of the health
workforce.
Dr Hussein A. Gezairy, Regional Director for the Eastern Mediterranean |
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Background |
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Physical inactivity is the fourth leading risk factor for noncommunicable disease worldwide and is estimated to cause between 3.2 and 5 million deaths globally per year. Globally, physical inactivity is estimated to cause around 27% of diabetes, 30% of ischaemic heart disease and 21%–25% of breast and colon cancer. Physical activity is also fundamental in achieving energy balance and weight control.
Recent estimates show that approximately 31% of the world's population does not undertake the recommended amount of physical activity to gain protective health benefits. In the Eastern Mediterranean Region, the available data from eight countries show levels of inactivity range from about 30% to as high as 70%. Of concern, less than half of the countries of the Eastern Mediterranean Region have systematic monitoring of levels of physical activity in adults and children and very few countries have commenced any comprehensive action aimed at increasing levels of activity through sports, recreation, and cycling and walking.
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Read more... [Background]
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