World Health Day 2016

World Health Day 2016

Theme: “Diabetes:Scale up prevention, strengthen care, and enhance surveillance”. 

World Health Day 2016 would be celebrated worldwide on 7^th of April, at Thursday.

World Health Day
The World Health Day is celebrated by the people all across the world every year on 7^th of April under the leadership of World Health Organization to draw the mass people attention towards the importance of global health. World Health Assembly was held first time in the year 1948 in Geneva by the WHO where it was decided to celebrate the World Health Day annually on 7^th of April. It was first celebrated worldwide in the year 1950 as the World Health Day. Varieties of events related to the particular theme are organized on the international and national level by the WHO.
It is an annual event being celebrated for years to raise the common public awareness towards the health issues and concerns. A particular theme is chosen to run the celebration and take care of the health for whole year. Global Polio Eradication was also one of the special themes of the year 1995 of world health day. From then, most of the countries have become free of this fatal disease whereas in other parts of the world its awareness level has increased.
World Health Day targets all the health issues on global basis for which several programs are organized yearly by the WHO and other related health organizations at various places like schools, colleges and other crowd places. It is celebrated to remember the establishment of the World health Organization as well as draw the attention of people towards the major health issues in the world. WHO is a vast health organization working under UN for addressing the health issues on a global basis. Since its establishment it has addressed serious health issues including chickenpox, polio, smallpox, TB, leprosy and etc from various developing countries. It has played a significant role aiming to make the world a healthy world. It has all the statistics about global health reports.

How World Health Day is Celebrated

World Health Day is celebrated worldwide by the government, non-government, NGOs including various health organizations at many places by organizing programmes relating to the public health issues and awareness. Participated organizations highlight their activities and supports through the media reports by means of press releases, news and etc. Health authorities from different country take part in the celebration with their pledges in order to support on the health issues worldwide.
Varieties of activities are done in the conference of health workers to encourage people to maintain their health in the presence of media coverage. Debates on the related topics, art exhibitions, essay writing, competitions and award ceremony are organized to fulfill the aim of world health day.

Why World Health Day is Celebrated

World Health Day celebration focuses on increasing the life expectancy by adding good health to the lives of people and promoting healthier living habits. Youths of the new era are also targeted by this event to prevent and make them healthy to make the world healthy and free from AIDS and HIV.
Disease spreading vectors like mosquitoes (malaria, dengue fever, filaria, chikungunya, yellow fever and etc), ticks, bugs, sand flies, snails and etc are also spotlighted by the WHO to make the world free from a wide range of diseases caused by parasites and pathogens. It provides better prevention and cure from the vector-borne diseases spread by vectors and travelers from one country to other. WHO supports various health authorities on global basis to make their own efforts for the public health problems to enhance better life without any diseases.
Some of the objectives of why it is being celebrated yearly are listed below:

• To increase the public awareness of various causes and prevention of high blood pressure.
• To provide detail knowledge of getting prevented from various diseases and their complications.
• To encourage most vulnerable group of people to frequently check their blood pressure and follow medications from the professionals.
• To promote self care among people.
• To motivate the worldwide health authorities to make their own efforts in creating the healthy environments in their country.
• To protect families living in the disease vulnerable areas.
• To teach travelers and send them a messages about how to get protected from the vector-borne diseases while travelling.

World Health Day Themes

• The theme of World Health Day 1950 was “Know your Health Services”.
• The theme of World Health Day 1951 was “Health for your Child and World’s Children”.
• The theme of World Health Day 1952 was “Healthy surroundings make Healthy people”.
• The theme of World Health Day 1953 was “Health is Wealth”.
• The theme of World Health Day 1954 was “The Nurse: Pioneer of Health”.
• The theme of World Health Day 1955 was “Clean water means better Health”.
• The theme of World Health Day 1956 was “Destroy disease carrying Insects”.
• The theme of World Health Day 1957 was “Food for All”.
• The theme of World Health Day 1958 was “Ten years of Health progress”.
• The theme of World Health Day 1959 was “Mental illness and Mental Health in the World of today”.
• The theme of World Health Day 1960 was “Malaria eradication – A world challenge”.
• The theme of World Health Day 1961 was “Accidents and their prevention”.
• The theme of World Health Day 1962 was “Preserve sight- prevent Blindness”.
• The theme of World Health Day 1963 was “Hunger= Disease of millions”.
• The theme of World Health Day 1964 was “No Truce for Tuberculosis”.
• The theme of World Health Day 1965 was “Smallpox – constant alert”.
• The theme of World Health Day 1966 was “Man and his Cities”.
• The theme of World Health Day 1967 was “Partners in Health”.
• The theme of World Health Day 1968 was “Health in the World of Tomorrow”.
• The theme of World Health Day 1969 was “Health, Labor and Productivity”.
• The theme of World Health Day 1970 was “Early detection of Cancer saves Life”.
• The theme of World Health Day 1971 was “A full life despite Diabetes”.
• The theme of World Health Day 1972 was “Your Heart is your Health”.
• The theme of World Health Day 1973 was “Health begins at Home”.
• The theme of World Health Day 1974 was “Better food for a healthier World”.
• The theme of World Health Day 1975 was “Smallpox: Point of no return”.
• The theme of World Health Day 1976 was “Foresight Prevents Blindness”.
• The theme of World Health Day 1977 was “Immunize and protects your Child”.
• The theme of World Health Day 1978 was “Down with High Blood pressure”.
• The theme of World Health Day 1979 was “A healthy Child: A sure future”.
• The theme of World Health Day 1980 was “Smoking or Health: Choice is yours”.
• The theme of World Health Day 1981 was “Health for all by year 2000 AD”.
• The theme of World Health Day 1982 was “Add life to years”.
• The theme of World Health Day 1983 was “Health for all by year 2000 AD: Countdown has begun”.
• The theme of World Health Day 1984 was “Children’s Health: Tomorrow’s Wealth”.
• The theme of World Health Day 1985 was “Healthy Youth- Our best Resource”.
• The theme of World Health Day 1986 was “Healthy living: Everyone a winner”.
• The theme of World Health Day 1987 was “Immunization: A chance for every Child”.
• The theme of World Health Day 1988 was “Health for All: All for Health”.
• The theme of World Health Day 1989 was “Let’s talk Health”.
• The theme of World Health Day 1990 was “Our Planet our Earth: Think Globally Act Locally”.
• The theme of World Health Day 1991 was “Should Disaster Strike, be prepared”.
• The theme of World Health Day 1992 was “Heart beat: A rhythm of Health”.
• The theme of World Health Day 1993 was “Handle life with care: Prevent violence and Negligence”.
• The theme of World Health Day 1994 was “Oral Health for a Healthy Life”.
• The theme of World Health Day 1995 was “Global Polio Eradication”.
• The theme of World Health Day 1996 was “Healthy Cities for better life”.
• The theme of World Health Day 1997 was “Emerging infectious diseases”.
• The theme of World Health Day 1998 was “Safe motherhood”.
• The theme of World Health Day 1999 was “Active aging makes the difference”.
• The theme of World Health Day 2000 was “Safe Blood starts with me”.
• The theme of World Health Day 2001 was “Mental Health: stop exclusion, dare to care”.
• The theme of World Health Day 2002 was “Move for health”.
• The theme of World Health Day 2003 was “Shape the future of life: healthy environments for children”.
• The theme of World Health Day 2004 was “Road safety”.
• The theme of World Health Day 2005 was “Make every mother and child count”.
• The theme of World Health Day 2006 was “Working together for health”.
• The theme of World Health Day 2007 was “International health security”.
• The theme of World Health Day 2008 was “Protecting health from the adverse effects of climate change”.
• The theme of World Health Day 2009 was “Save lives, make hospitals safe in emergencies”.
• The theme of World Health Day 2010 was “Urbanization and health: make cities healthier”.
• The theme of World Health Day 2011 was “Anti-microbial resistance: no action today, no cure tomorrow”.
• The theme of World Health Day 2012 was “Good health adds life to years”.
• The theme of World Health Day 2013 was “Healthy heart beat, Healthy blood pressure”.
• The theme of World Health Day 2014 was “Vector-borne diseases”.
• The theme of World Health Day 2015 was “Food safety” (with 5 keys; Key 1: Keep clean, Key 2: Separate raw and cooked food, Key 3: Cook food thoroughly, Key 4: Keep food at safe temperatures, Key 5: Use safe water and raw materials).
• The theme of World Health Day 2016 would be “Diabetes:Scale up prevention, strengthen care, and enhance surveillance”.

Scientist of the day - James Dewey Watson

James Dewey Watson is an American molecular biologist, geneticist and zoologist. He is credited for co-discovering the molecular structure of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), a substance that is the basis of heredity. His discovery has been described by other biologists and Nobel laureates as the most important scientific discovery of the 20th century. He was born in Illinois to James D. Watson and Jean Mitchell. Growing up, James Dewey Watson spent hours bird-watching and decided to major in ornithology but Erwin Schrodinger’s book titled ‘What is Life’ had such a profound impact on him that he chose genetics in the end. He received his B.S. degree from the University of Chicago, and his PhD from Indiana University. He was strongly opposed to the belief that genes were proteins that could replicate and DNA was a simple tetranucleotide that supported the genes. James’ perception, influenced by the discoveries and lectures of that time, was that DNA was indeed the genetic molecule. He finally found success with Francis Crick and Maurice Wilkins, when the trio discovered the double helix structure of the DNA molecule. For this discovery James Dewey Watson, Francis Crick and Maurice Wilkins earned the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1962 

Childhood & Early Life

• James Watson was born on April 6, 1928 in Chicago, Illinois. His father, James D. Watson was a businessman and his mother’s name was Jean Mitchell.
• He attended Horace Mann Grammar School for eight years and South Shore High School for two years. For further education he went to the University of Chicago on a tuition scholarship in 1943.
• He graduated from Chicago University with a B. S. degree in Zoology in 1947. He could pursue his dream of studying genetics when Indiana University awarded him a fellowship.
• He did his PhD research at Salvador Luria’s (also his doctoral advisor) laboratory. Luria was one of the leaders of the new Phage group, a movement of geneticists from experiential system to microbial genetics.
• In those times the prevalent notion was that genes were proteins which could replicate and DNA was the structure that supported it. However, Avery-Macleod-McCarty’s experiment led Watson to believe that DNA was indeed the genetic molecule.
• His doctoral thesis was on the effect of hard X-rays on bacteriophage multiplication, inspired from geneticists H. J. Muller and T. M. Sonneborn and microbiologist Max Delbruck. He graduated with a PhD in Zoology in 1950.
• For his post doctoral research he went to Copenhagen University for a year to work with biochemist Herman Kalckar at his laboratory. But as the field of interest differed for both, Watson shifted his workplace after some months.
• His new partner was microbial physiologist Ole Maaloe and they did several experiments to explore the structure of the DNA. After much hard work and deliberation they accepted that the result of their first attempt was inconclusive.

  Major Works

  James Dewey Watson co-discovered the double-helical structure of the DNA molecule in 1953. The discovery is considered to be one of the most important discoveries of the 20th century. In 1962, the trio of James Dewey Watson, Francis Crick and Maurice Wilkins received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their discovery.

  Personal Life & Legacy

  • James Watson married Elizabeth Lewis in 1968 and together they have two sons, Rufus Robert Watson and Duncan James Watson. Rufus, born in 1970, suffers from schizophrenia.
  • His memoir, ‘Avoid Boring People: Lessons from a Life in Science’, was published in 2007 and a UK Book Tour was scheduled. However, in an interview he made certain statements on race-and-intelligence that were widely considered insensitive. Following the controversy, he cancelled the rest of the tour.
  • The 2007 controversy significantly dented Watson’s image and as a result his financial condition became so bad that he had to auction his Nobel Prize medal in 2014. Russian tycoon, Alisher Usmanov, bought it for US $4.1 million and gave the medal back to Watson.