U.N. INTERNATIONAL DATES TO NOTE (plus links)

11 July

World Population Day

Since the middle of the 20th century, the world has experienced unprecedented population growth. The world’s population more than tripled in size between 1950 and 2020. The growth rate of the world’s population reached a peak between 1965 and 1970, when human numbers were increasing by an average of 2.1% per year. During the period from 2000 to 2020, even though the global population grew at an average annual rate of 1.2%, 48 countries or areas grew at least twice as fast: these included 33 countries or areas in Africa and 12 in Asia.

15 July

World Youth Skills Day

18 July

Nelson Mandela International Day

25 July

World Drowning Prevention Day

An estimated 236,000 people drown every year, and drowning is among the ten leading causes of death for children aged 5-14 years. More than 90% of drowning deaths occur in rivers, lakes, wells, domestic water storage vessels and swimming pools in low- and middle-income countries, with children and adolescents in rural areas disproportionately affected

28 July

World Hepatitis Day

The date of 28 July was chosen because it is the birthday of Nobel-prize winning scientist Dr Baruch Blumberg, who discovered hepatitis B virus (HBV) and developed a diagnostic test and vaccine for the virus.

Low coverage of testing and treatment is the most important gap to be addressed in order to achieve the global elimination goals by 2030

30 July

International Day of Friendship

World Day Against Human Trafficking

To #EndHumanTrafficking,we cannot allow this crime to bemet with increasing indifference andimpunity.We must strengthen resilience against exploitationand the underlying socio-economic andcultural issues that are conducive totrafficking. We mustsensitize everyoneto the topic of humantraffickingandthuspushattention towards those who can make adifferencein terms ofchangingpolicy andnationalresourcemanagement to strengthenprevention measures, improve identification ofvictims, increase support ofsurvivors and end impunity.

Summary of new polioviruses this week:

• Afghanistan: one WPV1 case

• Benin: one cVDPV2 case

• Madagascar: three cVDPV1 cases and one cVDPV1 positive environmental sample

• Mali: one cVDPV2 case

For more information, click here - http://polioeradication.org/polio-today/polio-now/this-week/

Click here to learn the difference between Wild Polio Virus (WPV) and Vaccine-derived Polio Virus. (VDPV)