World Health Day 2021: History, significance and theme

Every year on April 7, World Health Day is observed. The World Health Organization (WHO) started the World Health Day campaign way back in its First Health Assembly in 1948 and brought it into effect in 1950 with the motive of promoting awareness about physical and mental health and offer the necessary support. The motive behind World Health Day was to make people understand the importance of universal health coverage. 

The World Health Day is held to mark WHO's founding and is seen as an opportunity by the organization to draw worldwide attention to a subject of major importance to global health each year.

The theme for World Health Day 2021 is ‘Building a fairer, healthier world’. Stating that our world is unequal, WHO said that the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted how some people can have better access to health services and live healthier lives than others.

On World Health Day 2021, WHO insists that the sufferings and illnesses faced by some of the groups are preventable.

The organization has proposed four major steps in achieving its goal. They are working together, collecting reliable data, tackling inequities, and acting beyond borders.

Several stories related to health inequities are also available on the World Health Day 2021 page on the WHO website.