Morning SCOPHian
World Days & SCOPH
Day, World Party Day W orldandNutella International Joke Day?
There are a lot of World Days, which, though they sound like fun, are only related to public health in the broadest sense. But there are a lot of World Health Days, which deserve attention by people concerned with public health. People like you- SCOPHians from around the world. From World Haemophilia to World Hepatitis Day, a lot of diseases have a world day dedicated to them because of the big impact they have on public health. For example did you know that the Hepatitis viruses constitute a major global health risk with around 350 million people being chronically infected with hepatitis B and around 170 million people being chronically infected with hepatitis C? Or that only 25 per cent of those living with haemophilia are receiving adequate care? The World Days offer an opportunity to put focus on a certain disease and raise awareness on its causes, prevention, treatment and public health impact. For this reason many of you c elebrate World Days in your local committee and national member organisation. To get an overview about the World Days, which are celebrated in most NMO, the SCOPH Dream Team conducted a survey asking SCOPHians about the World Days they celebrate and the support they would like to have by the SCOPH Dream Team. 42 SCOPHians participated in the survey. Their answers showed that there are big differences in the popularity of world days. The World Days celebrated by most SCOPHians (more than 50%) are: World Diabetes Day, World Cancer Day and World No Tobacco Day. A little bit less common are celebrations of World Tuberculosis Day, World Health Day and World Blood Donor Day, followed by World Heart Day and World Mental Health Day. The survey also showed very clearly that there is still a lot of untapped potential within S COPH
6 | Public Health
Anna Klicpera SCOPH Director in regards to the World Days. Almost all participants stated that if the world days were coordinated internationally and the SCOPHians received more support, they could organise more actions. In particular, they would like to receive more information and ideas on actions they could do.
This means, that if we all help each other, we can make use of that potential! You are already organising a lot of great projects on the world days and realised very creative ideas. Now it is time to share these! Send an email to the SCOPH Yahoo-group and tell other SCOPHians what you have planned for a certain World Day! If you want to organise an action, but need fresh ideas, you can also send an email to the group and ask for input! Let’s plan the World Days together! It does not matter if it is as popular as the World No Tobacco Day or a neglected day such as the World COPD Day, the more we work together the more impact we have! Let’s keep SCOPH rocking-together!