World Health Day – April 7 2016

World Health Day is marked at this time every year to celebrate the founding of the World Health Organization, the world’s leading health organisation, on 7 April 1948.

• Each year, a theme is selected for World Health Day that highlights an area of concern for the WHO.
• This year the spotlight is on diabetes and the reasons are obvious. The number of people with diabetes has risen from 108 million in 1980 to 422 million in 2014.
• World Health Day is one of eight official global public health campaigns marked by WHO. This year the day is observed with theme: Halt the rise: beatdiabetes

Goals of WHD 2016 are

1. Scale Up Prevention
2. Strengthen Care
3. Enhance Surveillance.

Diabetes Key Facts:

• Diabetes is a lifelong condition that causes someone’s blood sugar (glucose) level to become too high.
• The diseases has two types viz, Type 1, Type 2, Gestational, Impaired Glucose Tolerance (IGT) and Impaired Fasting Glycaemia.
• It can lead to a heart attack, stroke, blindness, kidney failure and lower limb amputation, and caused 1.5million deaths globally in 2012. While High blood glucose also caused 2.2million deaths.
• Type 1 but it often runs in families so is thought to be genetic. However Type 2 Diabetes develops if you are over 40 you have a close relative with diabetes, are overweight or obese, or are of south Asian, Chinese descendent.

 Complications:

• Massive levels of blood sugar levels can cause eye damage, stroke, and cerebral circulation damage, gum disease, heart, kidney disease, and peripheral nerve damage, blood circulation problems in the legs, foot ulcers and amputations.

Health Minister launches new health initiatives and Mobile APPS

On World Health Day, the Health Minister J P Nadda launched the Swasth Bharat Mobile application and ANM Online application-ANMOL.

• ANMOL is a tablet-based application that enables ANMs to enter and updated data for beneficiaries of their jurisdiction.
• This will ensure more prompt entry and updation of data as well as improve the data quality since the data will be entered at source by providers of health services themselves.
• The Application is Aadhaar-merged, it will help in authentication of the records of field workers and beneficiaries.

E-RaktKosh:

• The Health Minister also launched E-RaktKosh initiative. It is an integrated Blood Bank Management Information System that has been conceptualized and developed after multiple consultations with all stakeholders.
• This web-based mechanism interconnects all the Blood Banks of the State into a single network.

India Fights Dengue App:

• This application will be used to fight against Vector Borne Diseases, especially Dengue, can be won only with effective community participation,
• The App empowers the community members how to contribute towards prevention of Dengue.

Guidelines for Dialysis Centre:

• The Minister stated that every district in India will have the facility of a Dialysis Centre operated under the PPP mode.
• He unveiled the findings of the ICMR India DIABetes aka INDIAB Study Phase I, along with WHO Global Report on Diabetes, WHO India Technical Report on Diabetes in India.