Give the gift of life: donate blood
World Blood Donor Day, celebrated on 14 June every year, serves to raise awareness of the need for safe blood and blood products and to thank voluntary unpaid blood donors for their life-saving gifts of blood. With the slogan "Give the gift of life: donate blood", this year’s campaign, the 10th anniversary of World Blood Donor Day, will focus on the value of donated blood to the patient, not only in saving life, but also in helping people live longer and more productive lives.
Communicable Diseases leading to Noncommunicable Diseases
Although there has been a traditional and historical divide between communicable diseases and noncommunicable diseases (NCDs), the facts are different: several communicable diseases lead to NCDs. For those NCDs that result from infectious agents, prevention and control of communicable diseases can have a substantial impact. Further research is needed to better understand linkages between communicable diseases and NCDs for the primary prevention of such diseases.
World No Tobacco Day 2013
Every year, on the 31st of May, World Health Organization celebrates World No-Tobacco Day. This year, the World Health Organization has selected "ban tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship (TAPS)" as the theme of the Day. The tobacco industry spends tens of billions of dollars worldwide each year on advertising, promotion and sponsorship. A total ban on direct and indirect advertising, promotion and sponsorship, as provided in guidelines to Article 13 of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, can substantially reduce tobacco consumption and protect people, particularly youths, from industry marketing tactics. To be effective, bans must be complete and apply to all marketing categories.
Safeguarding health in emergencies through legislation
The International Health Regulations or IHR(2005) is one of the most potent tools to safeguard the world from disease outbreaks and public health emergencies, because it is a legal framework that binds Member countries and WHO to certain obligations aimed at containing the spread of diseases between countries. To fully implement IHR(2005), appropriate legal frameworks are needed at the national level. The challenge is that, countries have very different requirements, and that existing legislation, policies, regulations and requirements currently support IHR implementation to varying degrees.
