World Health Day

In a chaotic life, where running after material wealth as it is all that matters, we tend to forget many things on our way. Few of them are family, relationships, feelings, emotions, but most important of all, our health. Neglecting them may not affect professional life but will for sure one's personal life and relationships. The World Health Organisation dedicates a day per year to celebrate our health. That day is called World Health Day. 

History of World Health Day

World Health Day has a rich history since the year 1991. The first World Health Day was celebrated in the year 1950, the 7th of April. There is an assembly which governs and makes essential decisions for the World Health Organisation called the World Health Assembly. The World Health Assembly decided to hold World Health Day in the year 1948. The annual event is now conducted on every the 7th of April from the year 1950. Every year different types of themes are assigned to the day to be celebrated. Keeping the theme in events are conducted worldwide, country wise and region wise. There are nearly eleven events conducted by the World Health Organisation yearly. Few of them are World Malaria Day, World No Tobacco Day, World AIDS Day, World Blood Donor Day. World Health Day is one among them. 

World Health Day 2022 Date

• When is World Health Day 2022?

World Health Day for the year 2022 is celebrated/observed on Thursday, 7 April.

• World Health Day dates for the years 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025, 2026 and 2027

Why is World Health Day celebrated? 

World Health Day is celebrated every single year to make people aware of the importance of health. The significance of heath and its essentiality is no longer a priority for us and is often forgotten. The following are the few reasons why World Health Day is organised each year. 

1. The celebration is to remind us how valuable our health is to lead a happy, long and prosperous life. 
2. To bring awareness of a certain disease which is widely spreading in that particular year.
3. Learning the different techniques or methods to keep yourself and your loved ones away from the disease because prevention is better than cure. 
4. To realise there is a wide variety of solutions and cures to treat a disease or illness. 
5. This celebration teaches us not to attach any kind of stigma or look down on anyone with any disease. 
6. World Health Day doesn't forget to remind us that it is okay to seek help whenever it is necessary. 
7. As is it a joint event, it brings peace together to all with health. 
8. It also creates a sense of one as anything can 

Different themes in World Health Day

Every year different themes are used to organise World Health Day, and events are arranged based on the theme. The following are the last five years' themes and how important their contribution was to World Health Day.

2015: The theme for the year 2015 is Food safety. The following is the significance of WHO theme 2015. 

Slogan: "From farm to plate, make food safe."

1. To educate the people about how unhealthy is contaminated food. 
2. The methods to reduce adulteration of food was also discussed.
3. Wide range of diseases such as diarrhoea to cancers is caused because of the lack of food safety.

2016: The theme for the year 2016 is Halt the rise: beat diabetes. The following is the importance of the theme. 

Slogan: "Diabetes: Scale up prevention, strengthen care, and enhance surveillance"

1. Diabetes is a new disease which causes heart-related diseases which reduces a person's lifetime. 
2. Methods to reduce diabetes by exercise, strict diet control etc. were discussed. 
3. The emphasis on the causes of diabetes like hypertension, obesity was equally given.

2017: Depression: Let's Talk is the theme for the year 2017. The following is the significance of WHO theme 2017. 

Slogan: "Depression: let's talk."

1. One of the threateningly growing diseases amongst the younger generation, which is my mental health is very important. 
2. There must be no stigma attached to it, and it is very common to suffer from depression for varied reasons like home, work, relationship related issues.
3. It is never too late to seek help by consulting a therapist or taking up regular counselling. 

2018: The theme for the year 2018 was Universal Health Coverage: Everyone, everywhere. 

Slogan: "Health for All"

1. The necessity for people from all strata of life to get basic health services without any financial difficulty was propagated through this theme. 
2. It also includes prevention, promotion, treatment, rehabilitation and palliation from any disease for that matter. 
3. The poorest, economically backward people are protected through the Universal Health Coverage.

2019: The theme for the year 2019 was also Universal Health Coverage: Everyone, everywhere. It is the only theme which was again repeated the next year. The following is the significance of the theme. 

Slogan: "Universal Health Coverage is the WHO's number one goal".

1. Importance was given entirely on the primary health care services which must reach everyone in different strata of life. 
2. Facts, fun information, statistics were shared to create awareness.
3. Universal Health Coverage was declared to be a fundamental human right. 

2020: The theme for the year 2020 was Support Nurses, and Midwives was the theme of this year. The following is the significance of the theme. 

Slogan: "Support nurses and midwives"

1. Nurses and Midwives are not given much attention and doctors. Their value must also be recognised, which was the main aim of the theme. 
2. Recognising their importance will naturally make many others choose and specialise in this field. 
3. Thinking about them in the period of the pandemic is also a way of thanking them collectively. 

How to celebrate World Health Day?

As World Health Day has become an annual event, people have come up with many ideas and ways to celebrate it grandly. The following are a few methods to celebrate World Health Day really. 

1. Form a group of people, consult anyone you can and brainstorm some ideas to conduct any group activity. 
2. Organise different game shows for children like slogan making for that year's theme, matching diseases with their symptoms or treatments, a small parade in the neighbourhood with pluck cards etc. 
3. As far as adults are concerned, they can indulge in many activities like participating in a marathon conducted for World Health Day, organise a concert where people can compose songs and sing, interview people and make a mini video tape etc. 
4. Another great idea is to conduct a debate and discuss things related to the theme of World Health Day.
5.  Fundraising programs like donation, auctioning funny things etc can be done to collect money which can be settled to any health camp or settled to WHO as a donation. 
6. Slogans on World Health Day can be printed, made famous and popular worldwide through social media such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. 
7. Socialising with people who are affected by the disease and who have survived disease will also be a way to celebrate World Health Day as it brings awareness to you. 

Conclusion

Overall, these are the few key points and information regarding World Health Day. Good health is not something that can be bought. However, it can be an extremely valuable savings account. Money once lost can be earned in many ways, but health when once lost is very difficult to bring back. If you want good health, you have to take that first step. You cannot sit and wait for it to arrive! 

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Co-author:  Akshaya Saravana Kumar

Akshaya is currently pursuing Masters in English Literature. She is an avid reader, an animal lover and a movie freak. She loves to spend her past time travelling to strange places in different time zones with her imagination and fall in love with fictional characters.