Thursday, April 16, 2009

WORLD HEALTH DAY 2009

Save lives
Make hospitals
Safe in emergencies
WORLD HEALTH DAY 2009
7 April 2009

The theme for this year’s World Health Day is “Health Facilities in Emergencies”. The South- East Asia Region has long experienced many disasters and in some of these health facilities were a major casualty. For example, during the 26 December 2004 tsunami, 30 of the 240 health clinics were destroyed in Aceh province, Indonesia and seriously damaged 77 others. In Shri Lanka, 92 health facilities were destroyed including 35 hospitals. In 2001 in Gujarat, India, a magnitude 7.7 earth quake destroyed 3812 health facilities. These are some examples of disaster situations where health services are affected and at times unavailable when they are most needed.
The focus of the biennial World Disaster Reduction Campaign (2008-09) is also on the same issue: “Hospitals Safe from disasters: Reduce Risk, Protect Health Facilities, Save Lives.” In this global effort, WHO is partnering with the Secretariats of the UN International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (ISDR) and the World Bank to work so that all health facilities stand up to emergencies and continue to function.
The goal of raising awareness in this issue is to effect changes that will ensure that health facilities and services are able to function in the aftermath of emergencies and disasters, protect the lives of patients, serve the affected population and keep health workers safe. This means:
Ensuring the structural resilience of health structures with existing technologies;
Keeping the equipment and supplies of these health facilities intact should an emergency happen;
Improving the preparedness and risk reduction capacity of health workers and
Involving communities in this effort.
Safe health facilities are those that are accessible and function at maximum capacity immediately after a disaster event. Health facilities, large or small, urban or rural, are the focus of this work. This is not just the work of the health sector and health professionals alone. We need to work together with other sectors and experts from other fields such as urban planners, architects, engineers to bring not just awareness, but more importantly action.
In WHO’s South-East Asia Region, Member States are committed to achieving a benchmark that health facilities, old or new, are safe from disasters. A Regional Consultation with Member States was conducted in April 2008 to plan out the next steps for country specific needs and activities have begun in some countries already.For years, a number of countries have been already undertaking activities to reduce risks to health facilities during disasters. This World Health Day theme is intended to generate more momentum that will help sustain and mainstream disaster risk reduction into health sector initiatives. WHO together with its global partners will continue to work with governments, international and regional organizations, non governmental organizations and individuals will build and sustain efforts that ensure that health facilities can function during and in the aftermath of disasters.

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