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 Sri Lanka, 92 health facilities were destroyed including 35 hospitals. In 2001 in Gujurat, India, a magnitude 7.7 earthquake 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 (2008-2009) 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 Secretariat 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.

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