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WHO World Health Organization |
With every year the concerns in regards to the influence of the environment to children’s health grows. Therefore, "Healthy Environment for Children" became the slogan for the World Health Day which was held on April 7, 2003.
The
press conference conducted in the Russian information agency "Novosti" ("News")
was dedicated to the World Health Day. The representatives of the World Health
Organization (WHO), UNICEF, UNFPA, UNEP, ILO and UNESCO, as well as the Deputy
Minister of Health of Russia, Dr. Olga Sharapova, took part in it. Dr. Mikko
Vienonen, Special Representative of the WHO Director General in Russia underlined
in his presentation that children is our future and they deserve to inherit
a safer, more fair and healthier world. Therefore, urgent actions have to be
taken for the protection of children’s vulnerable developing organisms and there
is nothing more important than to preserve the environment for children.
Participants of the press-conference drew the attention of
journalists to the alarming facts promulgated by the WHO. According to WHO statistics,
the unfavorable environmental factors cause up to 33% of all the global burden
of diseases. And in 40% of cases children under 5 years old suffer from those
diseases, though they make up only 10% of the world’s population. Every year,
more than 5
million people die of reasons related to the unhealthy environment. Thus, for
example, air pollution increases cases for the respiratory system diseases –
approximately 3000 Russian children under the age of 5 die every year of respiratory
diseases. The exposure of chemicals to the immune system leads to the decrease
of immunity; as the result of it the allergy rate among children in Russia has
increased up to 65% and a further increase is expected in the future. Pollution
of reservoirs and drinking water promotes the increase of digestive system diseases
and intestinal infections – in 2001 the diseases of digestive system were registered
in 3.667 million children under 14 years old in our country.
On
the World Health Day in 2003, the WHO came out with the initiative "Future for
Our Children" which will be the main theme of the forthcoming 4th International
Conference on Environment and Health Protection at the ministerial level to
be held in Budapest in 2004.
The famous artist Iliya Komov dedicated the exhibition of his pictures to the World Health Day. The exhibition was open on April 9 in the Central Artist’s House and lasted till April 17. By means of the Russian portrait and landscape painting language, Iliya Komov was able to express the theme of healthy environments for children. The beauties of the native land and next to it – urban landscape with smoking pipes. Tender mother’s arms, hugging and protecting, and sad inquiring look of children from the orphanage. Such comparisons make people think of the responsibility of adults for children and also of the fact that it is in our power to make their life safe and successful and provide them with better and healthier environments.
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This year’s World TB Day campaign centered on mobilising TB patients and people who have been cured of TB – as well as those in the health sector – to advocate for government action, educate communities and put a human face on TB to reduce social stigma associated with the disease.
Ten years ago the World Health Organization declared a global
emergency to battle the resurgent epidemic of 
tuberculosis
and called on states to expand the time-tested "DOTS" (Directly Observed Treatment
Short Course) treatment strategy. Since then, 10 million TB patients worldwide
have been successfully treated under DOTS.
Russia assisted by WHO and partners is making steady headway in coping with the scourge of TB, which every year kills over 30,000 people worn down slowly and painfully by an infectious disease that destroys their lungs and wastes their bodies. Nearly 130,000 new cases are registered annually. High TB prevalence causes serious economic damage since the majority of the patients are of working age.
The theme of the 2003 World TB Day "DOTS Cured Me – It Will Cure You Too!" was the central topic of the press-conference that was held in the press-center of the Russian News Agency "Novosti" on 21 March. "Tuberculosis is curable, if you carefully follow the course of treatment," said Nikolay Mikhailov, the chair of the regional non-governmental organization of Russia’s TB patients "NABAT". "Uninterrupted treatment ensures cure for tuberculosis". The representatives from the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Justice, the leading TB research institutes and international partners involved in TB activities in Russia agreed on the need to move much faster in scaling up and reaching out to communities at greatest risk.
Raising awareness is one of the major tasks of the World TB Day campaign. This year thank to the joint efforts of the WHO TB Control Programme in the Russian Federation and the national and international partners a wide range of activities was performed including contests of posters, poems and stories for the students of 104 TB boarding schools, Moscow Art Schools and secondary schools in 26 regions across Russia. The students’ artistic works were exhibited at the hall of the Central House of Architect where the charity concert was organized. The concert was preceded with the award ceremony, where the winners of the contests were given their prizes in front of the cured TB patients from "NABAT", members of the World TB Day Organizing Committee, representatives of the national and international counterparts and the general public.
For the first time the cured TB patients called on TB sufferers
to mobilize their efforts to demand greater access to DOTS
treatment, thereby enabling them to become productive members of their society.
The open forum "Getting Over" let the 42 TB patients share their personal experience
so as to advocate for prevention and treatment, care and support, and encourage
TB sufferers to confront TB-related stigma and discrimination.
The 2003 World TB Day activities enjoyed wide television, radio and Internet coverage. The WHO TB Control Programme experts and national counterparts participated in quite a number of TV and radio programmes. A set of 4 TB-related showreels was produced and broadcast on the federal channels. Thousands of promoting leaflets clearly stating symptoms of tuberculosis were distributed at the central metro stations by the medical students.
Young TB specialists competed with each other for the best TB-related scientific paper. The contest was followed by a conference on the TB-related issues. "Multigrug Resistance: Prevention, Diagnosis, Treatment" was the topic of the scientific and practical conference initiated by the Central Research Institute of TB of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences.
A rock concert on the occasion of World TB Day gathered hundreds of medical students and the youth united that Saturday night by the call to fight TB.
This year’s campaign has informed, complemented, challenged and often driven the feedback from health providers, policy-makers, opinion leaders and TB patients themselves, which clearly proves that an effective response to the TB epidemic will not be possible without strong community involvement and leadership at all levels.