World Health Day

Yesterday's temperature of 19.2 degrees in Moscow was record-setting - the warmest day ever recorded for April 6th. Almost 20 degrees!!! Temperature records are being shattered here - March last year was the warmest in 125 years, and January 2008 was the mildest since records began 130 years ago. This evidence of global warming isn't being felt by some at home in Canada - what was the temp the other day in Vancover? Close to zero??? What, warmer here in Russia than on the west coast of Canada?! Not to rub it in but... Well, it is an apt day to talk of global warming, seeing as how today is World Health Day... and the theme for 2008 is "Protecting health from climate change." Not many specific or immediate health risks come to mind when thinking about climate change, and I suppose this is because climate change is a gradual process... more often than not, without any immediate visual impacts. The first thing that came to my mind was water, and the eventual exacerbation of the shortages of water supplies felt in so many places around the world - which in turn affects food supplies and eventual crop failures, aridity, etc. The WHO has a list of 10 facts on climate change and human health, which was interesting - take a look if you have a few minutes...


Doesn't it seem like there is a day for everything? I googled international days... or something like that, and one of the first things that came up was a list of Health Canada's Health Promotions Days: April is celebrated as no less than seven "months" (including Dental Health Month, Irritable Bowel Syndrome Awareness Month and Earth Month), four "weeks," and five "days," and that's just with regard to Canadian Health. Eeeegadzooks. Well, I like World Health Day. I mean, I like them all... but I do care to know about World Health Day - can't I incorporate all of the other health days into this one? Wikipedia also has today listed as Easy-E Day in Compton, California and Women's Day in Mozambique. I'm sure there are a multitude of other special events/causes pegged to April 7th... but this is enough for me. For now. For today.

The recent flooding in Uganda is a disaster of great dimensions. It destroyed 40% of the country's road network and caused widespread crop failure. In a country where 40% of the population is not using proper water sources, flooding increases the risk of diseases such as malaria and cholera.

This large area of banana plantation was wiped out in Honduras when Hurricane Mitch struck the region in 1998. The hurricane - which also hit Nicaragua - killed more than 17 000 people and left three million homeless. The damages were estimated at US$ 3000 million.

(From the World Health Org's website)