UN Holidays - World Health Day

The founding date of the World Health Organization, April 7, is now celebrated annually as World Health Day. The organization itself was created in the post-war year of 1948, but the holiday became a tradition only in 1950, when the world was slightly recovering from the consequences of colossal military operations. Medicine made a significant breakthrough during the war years; humanity had to accumulate experience in treating a wide variety of complex conditions in extreme conditions. But sooner or later everything extreme ends, and routine relaxes. And there was a need for educational work designed to convey the need for basic knowledge and actions aimed at preserving one’s own health. Medical assistance may not always be timely and complete; one cannot hope that the doctor will cure everything and return it to its original state. You need to take care of your health yourself. It is for these purposes that World Health Day serves, a unique holiday that is unusual in that it changes its theme every year. Humanity makes many discoveries, progress moves at tremendous speed, but in addition to comfort, it, unfortunately, also brings harm. And if earlier the educational work of a health care organization was to disseminate as deeply as possible information about hygiene, daily routine, consumption of certain foods and the need for clean drinking water, now the perspective of the problems has changed. Issues related directly to the influence of human activity on the health of society began to be covered. Urbanization leads to the accumulation of people in one place, which causes physical inactivity, an increased rate of spread of infections and stress from close proximity. Excessively free and active use of antibiotics causes the emergence of resistant microbes that are resistant to conventional drugs. There is a need for new drugs only because patients do not always take antibacterial drugs correctly, not knowing about their mechanism of action. These are the questions that become the topics of Health Day. Sugar has been of particular concern to doctors lately. A product that has found its way into the diet of almost all civilized humanity and which has become a formidable enemy of our well-being. The spread of the culture of consuming white refined sugar is regarded by experts as a time bomb. Diabetes, which occurs as a result, is rapidly gaining positions in the list of deadly diseases. One of the themes of World Health Day was “Let's defeat diabetes!” Because the sooner the symptoms of this disease are recognized, the better the prognosis for cure. Health protection is an investment in the quality of life, and it is under this slogan that campaigns and events are carried out. Whatever the religion, ethnicity or political beliefs of every inhabitant of the Earth, he has the right to a full and productive life without disease.