International Health Day

Established in 1948 by the first World Health Assembly (World Health Assembly) and from 1950 it is celebrated on 7 April.

The day is an opportunity to promote awareness-raising on crucial public health topics of interest to the international community on a global level, and to launch long-term programs on topics at the center of attention. World health day is therefore not an event that is reduced to one day's work, but every time it is the starting point of a journey aimed at improving health conditions throughout the world.

"Health for all"

the global campaign for World Day

UNIVERSAL HEALTH COVERAGE, what is lacking for half of the world's population: this is the goal set for 2030 in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of World Health Day decided by the World Health Organization (WHO).

The Director-General of the WHO, Ethiopian Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus summarizes the event: "Health is a human right, no one should be sick or die because of poverty, or because he cannot access health services he needs" . The WHO claims that "about 100 million people fall into a state of 'extreme poverty' (under $ 1.90 a day) due to medical expenses." And 12% of the world's population spends 10% of its income on health-related expenses. In the WHO region of the Eastern Mediterranean (which goes from Egypt to Iran and Afghanistan, Yemen and Saudi Arabia and includes Syria, Libya, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates and Kuwait and other countries) 40% of health spending it is paid directly by the citizens of their own pockets, with dramatic situations among the poorest: 55.5 million people particularly affected, 7.7 million slipped in the area of ​​extreme poverty due to these expenses. In some countries there is a 70% health expenditure for the citizen.

What happens in Italy?

In Italy, from this April until September 2019, the project "Educating for citizenship and global health" will be launched, aimed at medical students and the general population, supported by the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation, with Doctors with 'Africa CUAMM as leader, and the involvement of the Higher Institute of Health (ISS), of the Italian Secretariat for Medical Students (SISM), FederSpecializzandi, Italian Association of Physicians for the Environment ISde - Italy, Italian Climate Network (ICN), Center of health globlae (Csg), Center for international cooperation (Cci), Pedro Arrupe Institute, Euro Mediterranean Institute –Issr (Iem).

CUAMM warns that the initiatives are aimed at "promoting the themes of global citizenship, acceptance of others and at the same time stimulating a cultural change especially among the youngest, so that they can promote the growth of a conscious society capable of building a a more equitable world where the right to health is truly a right for all ".