07 avril 2023
The 2023 edition of World Health Day led by the World Health Organization (WHO) takes place this Friday, April 7. This year, the WHO also celebrates its 75th anniversary. After 75 years of promoting health for all, if the progress is enormous, so are the challenges ahead.
The theme chosen this year is “Health for All”. As every year, World Health Day is celebrated on the anniversary of the creation of the World Health Organization (WHO), April 7. This 2023 edition is special because the WHO is celebrating its 75th anniversary.
In 1948, in a world scarred by long years of war, 61 countries signed a treaty recognizing health as a fundamental human right but also for peace and security. Today, the WHO brings together 194 member states.
Since then there have been major advances – antibiotics have saved millions of lives and the polio vaccine has been developed – but “ this progress is constantly threatened by the persistence of health inequalities “, notes the WHO. Thus, good health and well-being for all remains the third goal among the 17 goals set by the United Nations to change the world. ” More than five million children die each year before their fifth birthday. In addition, 16,000 children die every day from preventable diseases, such as measles and tuberculosis. Every day, hundreds of women die during pregnancy or from complications related to childbirth “, deplores the UN.
75 ans of progress
If after 75 years, Health for all is still not acquired, the progress for humanity is numerous. Among them :
- The creation of the Expanded Program on Immunization in 1974 has prevented 3.5 to 5 million deaths each year from, among other things, measles, tetanus, whooping cough and influenza;
- In 1980, the WHO certified the eradication of smallpox worldwide, responsible for nearly 300 million deaths in the 20th century.
- Since 2000, ” mortality among children under five and pregnant women has halved“, underlines the WHO.
- In 2003, Member States adopted the first public health treaty in the world: the framework convention for tobacco control. In effect in more than 180 countries, 60 countries were on track to meet the target of a 30% reduction in tobacco consumption by 2025
- In 2021, the development of the first-ever vaccine against a parasite, a malaria vaccine, promises to save millions of people as the death toll from malaria in 2021 rose to 619,000.
- In 2023, poliomyelitis is on the verge of being eradicated with a 99.9% reduction in the spread of the disease worldwide.
Still many challenges to overcome
« We continue to face vast inequalities in access to health services, in global defenses against health emergencies, against threats from toxic products and against the climate crisis “, However, recognizes Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director General of the WHO. To address these challenges, WHO aims to employ 10 million people in the health sector by 2030 in low- and middle-income countries. It has also launched a training program in first aid for 25% of nurses in 25 low- and middle-income countries by 2025.
Aiming for health equity, the WHO urges states to give priority to primary health care, while in 2021, nearly 3.6 billion people still did not have access to it.