High Blood Pressure Selected as the Theme for World Health Day, April 7, 2013: Cup Half Full or Half Empty?

摘要

The World Health Organization (WHO) is the United Nations agency "responsible for providing leadership on global health matters, shaping the health research agenda, setting norms and standards, articulating evidence-based policy options, providing technical support to countries, and monitoring and assessing health trends." The guiding principle of the constitution of the WHO "is the attainment by all people of the highest possible level of health." Each year the WHO celebrates its creation in 1948 with World Health Day on April 7. Each year a theme is selected for World Health Day that highlights a priority area of global public health concern. The themes from previous years have focused on health issues related to aging (2012), antimicrobial resistance (2011), health risks and challenges of urbanization (2010), and the health workforce crisis (2006). In 2013, the WHO has selected high blood pressure as the theme for World Health Day. The selection of high blood pressure coincides with a publication of a series of articles describing findings of the WHO-sponsored Global Burden of Disease (GBD) study.