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Sheila Pantry Associates Ltd

Focus

Focus Archive

World Health Day, 7 April 2020 and World Immunisation Week, 24-30 April 2020

April 2020

As COVID-19 continues to spread worldwide, the search for a suitable vaccine continues in haste. Issue 3274, New Scientist, 21 March 2020 edition carries some of the latest information on this new coronavirus and the search for a suitable vaccine in Inside the race for a vaccine. This edition also contains an independent supplement from MediaPlanet entitled Value of Vaccines that includes a range of articles from experts.

World Health Day

7 April 2020 is the day to celebrate the work of nurses and midwives and remind world leaders of the critical role they play in keeping the world healthy. Nurses and other health workers are at the forefront of COVID-19 response – providing high quality, respectful treatment and care, leading community dialogue to address fears and questions and, in some instances, collecting data for clinical studies. Quite simply, without nurses, there would be no response.

In this International Year of the Nurse and the Midwife, World Health Day will highlight the current status of nursing and around the world. WHO and its partners will make a series of recommendations to strengthen of the nursing and midwifery workforce.

This will be vital if we are to achieve national and global targets related to universal health coverage, maternal and child health, infectious and non-communicable diseases including mental health, emergency preparedness and response, patient safety and the delivery of integrated, people-centred care, amongst others.

WHO and its partners are calling for your support on World Health Day to ensure that the nursing and midwifery workforces are strong enough to ensure that everyone, everywhere gets the healthcare they need.

More information: https://www.who.int/news-room/campaigns/world-health-day/world-health-day-2020

World Immunisation Week

Celebrated in the last week of April (24 to 30 April 2020), World Immunisation Week aims to promote the use of vaccines to protect people of all ages against disease. Immunisation saves millions of lives every year and is widely recognized as one of the world’s most successful and cost-effective health interventions. Yet, there are still nearly 20 million children in the world today who are not getting the vaccines they need.

The theme this year is #VaccinesWork for All and the campaign will focus on how vaccines – and the people who develop, deliver and receive them – are heroes by working to protect the health of everyone, everywhere.

2020 campaign objectives – The main goal of the campaign is to urge greater engagement around immunisation globally and the importance of vaccination in improving health and wellbeing of everyone, everywhere throughout life.

As part of the 2020 campaign, WHO and partners aim to:

Given that WHO has designated 2020 the International Year of the Nurse and the Midwife, WHO will highlight nurses and midwives for their crucial role as early vaccine champions for new parents and parents-to-be.

More information: https://www.who.int/news-room/events/detail/2020/04/24/default-calendar/world-immunization-week-2020