World Health Day 2016 observed globally with the theme Halt the Rise: Beat Diabetes

7 April: World Health Day

World Health Day (WHD) 2016 was observed globally on 7 April 2016. The theme for the year is Halt the Rise: Beat Diabetes.

The goals of the World Health Day 2016 are:

• Scale up prevention
• Strengthen care
• Enhance surveillance

The day is celebrated every year since it was first celebrated in 1950 to mark the anniversary of the World Health Organisation (WHO) formation in 1948.

The theme of the WHD 2015 was Food safety.

What is diabetes?

Diabetes is a chronic, progressive noncommunicable disease (NCD) characterized by elevated levels of blood glucose (blood sugar). It occurs when the pancreas does not produce enough of the insulin hormone, which regulates blood sugar, or when the body cannot effectively use the insulin it produces.

Key findings from WHO’s Global report on diabetes

• The number of people living with diabetes and its prevalence are growing in all regions of the world. In 2014, 422 million adults had diabetes, compared with 108 million in 1980.

• The epidemic of diabetes has major health and socioeconomic impacts, especially in developing countries.

• In 2014, more than 1 in 3 adults aged over 18 years were overweight and more than one in 10 were obese.

• The complications of diabetes can lead to heart attack, stroke, blindness, kidney failure and lower limb amputation. For example, rates of lower limb amputation are 10 to 20 times higher for people with diabetes.

• Diabetes caused 1.5 million deaths in 2012. Higher-than-optimal blood glucose caused an additional 2.2 million deaths by increasing the risks of cardiovascular and other diseases.

• Many of these deaths (43%) occur prematurely, before the age of 70 years, and are largely preventable through adoption of policies to create supportive environments for healthy lifestyles and better detection and treatment of the disease.

• Good management includes use of a small set of generic medicines, interventions to promote healthy lifestyles, patient education to facilitate self-care; and regular screening for early detection and treatment of complications.

World Health Day in India

On the occasion of WHD 2016, Union Minster of Health and Family Welfare Jagat Prakash Nadda launched new initiatives, which are:

• Guidelines for National Dialysis Programme in PPP-mode

The National Dialysis Programme aims to expand dialysis infrastructure, provide free service to 2.2 lakh new end-stage renal disease patients/year.

• Swastha Bharat-Mobile Apllication

The app will provide A-Z info on diseases, symptoms, treatment, health alerts and tips.

• ANMOL-ANM Online Tablet Application

It is a tablet-based application that allows ANMs to enter and updated data for beneficiaries of their jurisdiction. It is Aadhaar enabled. It will help in authentication of records of field workers and beneficiaries. The application aims to improve the standard of child and maternal health services in India.

• e-RaktKosh

It is a centralized blood bank management information system. It will provide information of the nearest blood bank on a mobile and availability of the particular blood group in a given radius.This web-based mechanism interconnects all the Blood Banks of the State into a single network. The Integrated Blood Bank MIS refers the acquisition, validation, storage and circulation of various live data and information electronically regarding blood donation and transfusion service.

• India Fights Dengue-Mobile Application

The application empowers the community members how to contribute towards prevention of dengue.

Apart from the above mentioned initiatives, ICMR India DIABetes (INDIAB) Study Phase-I and WHO India Technical Report on Diabetes in India were also released.

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