World Health Day 2007

Belize City, March 28 2007 - "Invest in Health, Build a Safer Future" is the theme for World Health Day 2007, which reflects one of the most vital concerns of our times: strategies for keeping us safe in a globalized world, where diseases can spread from one continent to another in mere hours. This year for World Health Day the Region of the Americas pledges to redouble its efforts to make health a top priority in the political agenda and to address the inequalities that worsen the vulnerability of its populations. Each year World Health Day highlights a different health issue, and commemorates the day the World Health Organization was established.

This year's theme focuses on new and existing diseases which threaten our health and security and ignore national borders. Threats to health security such as pandemics, natural disasters, chemical and nuclear accidents, climate change and its consequences, and bioterrorism all have the potential to affect international public health security. The threat of a global influenza pandemic remains real and the example of SARS is fresh in our minds. The epidemic of HIV/AIDS is another global phenomenon that adversely impacts not only health, but also the economy and stability of many countries. Although the burden can be greater for the developing world, epidemic-prone diseases are a growing threat to all nations.

The focal point of the World Health Day observances will be the newly revised and broadened International Health Regulations due to come into force in June. These regulations will provide for growing international cooperation in more robust and transparent reporting of disease outbreaks and other threats to public health, as well as control efforts. This international agreement urges Member States of the World Health Organization to focus their efforts in preventing and containing public health emergencies at their origin.

The regulations require countries to maintain surveillance and response capacities that allow them to detect, assess, and report important public health events, and to intervene with appropriate public health measures.

This year the Pan American Health Organization/World Health Organization (PAHO/WHO) office in Belize, in collaboration with the Ministry of Health, is organizing a national symposium on April 3 2007, under the theme, "Invest in Health, Build a Safer Future". This symposium will take place at the Radisson Hotel, Belize City, 8:30a.m. - 4:00p.m., and will focus on increasing global threats such as avian influenza, influenza pandemic, and HIV/AIDS, among others.

The Pan American Health Organization, founded in 1902, works with all the countries of the Americas to improve the health and quality of life of their peoples. It serves as the Regional Office of the World Health Organization. The PAHO/WHO office in Belize was established in the 1950s.

For more information, please contact Ms. Sandra Jones at PAHO/WHO Belize Country Office:

Pan American Health Organization
World Health Organization
Belize Office
P.O. Box 1834
#168 Newtown Barracks
Belize City
Belize

Tel: (501) 224-4885, (501) 224-5536
Fax: (501) 223-0917
E-mail: admin@blz.paho.org