The National Public Health Week is celebrated every first full week of April each year. The day encourages everyone to be a part of the movement campaigning for a healthier nation. This day also aims to recognize the contribution of public health officers and staff. It also aims to highlight the health issues currently faced by the community.
About the National Public Health Week
This weeklong celebration focuses on prevention and reducing unhealthy activities. Programs are publicized to help create healthy and fair public health policies. According to the website of the National Public Health Week,
“Everyone deserves to live a long and healthy life in a safe environment. To make that possible, we need to address the causes of poor health and disease risk among individuals and within our communities. Where we live, learn, work, worship, and play affect each of us and can determine our health and life expectancy. In the workplace, let’s partner across public and private sectors to make sure decisions are made with the public’s health in mind. Within our communities, let’s start new conversations with our neighbors and become advocates for positive change. Working together, we can build healthier communities and eventually, the healthiest nation. But we need your help to get there.”
And for each day of the National Public Health Week, there is a specific goal:
- Monday: Mental Health — advocate for and promote emotional well-being
- Tuesday: Maternal and Child Health — ensure the health of mothers and babies throughout the lifespan
- Wednesday: Violence Prevention — reduce personal and community violence to improve health
- Thursday: Environmental Health — help protect and maintain a healthy planet
- Friday: Education — advocate for quality education and schools
- Saturday: Healthy Housing — ensure access to affordable and safe housing
- Sunday: Economics — advocate for economic empowerment as the key to a healthy life
Read Also: Advocate Day
History
The National Public Health Week was founded by a group of physicians from the American Public Health Association in 1872. The first National Public Health Week took place in 1995 and has seen increased support over the years.
Dates
As mentioned earlier, the National Public Health Week is celebrated every first full week of April. This means that the upcoming celebration of this event will be held from April 5, until April 11.
Why Celebrate
The following are the main reasons why you should participate in the celebration of the National Public Health Week:
To Understand the Concept and Importance of Public Health
Although public health is an extremely important topic, there are still some people who are somehow unfamiliar with this topic. If you are one of them, then it is all the more reason for you to celebrate this week.
To Inform People About the State of Public Health
Another reason for you to celebrate this week is that by doing so, you will be able to inform other people about the state of public health in your locality or community. Disseminating information is crucial here because lives are on the line.
Celebration Ideas and Activities
The following are the best things to do to make your celebration of the National Public Health Week as best as it can be:
Raise Awareness
One good idea to celebrate this day is to raise awareness. Let other people know the state of public health in the area where you live.
Celebrate on Social Media
You can also take your celebration of this day on social media. You can, for instance, use the hashtag #NationalPublicHealthWeek to let your friends and followers know that you are also participating in the celebration of this important day.
Quotes
- “A tremendous amount of needless pain and suffering can be eliminated by ensuring that health insurance is universally available.” – Daniel Akaka
- “Pioneering spirit should continue, not to conquer the planet or space … but rather to improve the quality of life.” — Bertrand Piccard
- “Communities and countries and ultimately the world is only as strong as the health of their women.” — Michelle Obama
- “Forty-three years of independence, we [in Northern Kenya] still don’t have basic health facilities. A man has to be transported in a wheelbarrow 20, 30 kilometers for a hospital.” — Joseph Lekuton
- “There are some countries in sub-Saharan Africa where there’s one optometrist for eight million of the population.” — Joshua Silver
- “We are all much healthier than we were 20 years ago, but mentally, we’re falling apart. The World Health Organization now estimates that one out of five people on the planet is clinically depressed.” — Stephen Petranek
- “In resource-rich countries … 98 percent of babies are born HIV-negative. Yet, in resource-poor countries, in the absence of tests and treatment, 40 percent of children are infected.” — Mitchell Besser
- “One thousand one hundred children each day, infected with HIV. Where do they come from? Less than one comes from the United States; one, on average, comes from Europe; 100 come from Asia and the Pacific; and each day, a thousand babies with HIV in Africa.” — Mitchell Besser
- “Sub-Saharan Africa has 24 percent of the global disease burden, yet only three percent of the world’s health care workers.” — Mitchell Besser
- “For he who has health has hope; and he who has hope, has everything.” – Owen Arthur
- “It is time that we take control and find a way to curtail the explosive costs of health care. Small businesses deserve a chance to channel these funds toward other needs, such as expanding and creating more jobs for the economy.” – Christopher Bond
- “A human body is a conversation going on, both within the cells and between the cells, and they’re telling each other to grow and to die; when you’re sick, something’s gone wrong with that conversation.” — Danny Hillis
- “If a child in its first thousand days — from conception to two years old — does not have adequate nutrition, the damage is irreversible.” — Josette Sheeran
- “This isn’t one of those rare diseases that we don’t have the solution for. We know how to fix hunger.” — Josette Sheeran
- “Gardening is the most therapeutic and defiant act you can do, especially in the inner city. Plus, you get strawberries.” — Ron Finley
- “The greatest public health threat for many American women is the men they live with.” – Anne Quindlen
- “If you should speak to anyone affected by a mental illness, the chances are that you will hear stories of hidden suffering, shame, and discrimination in nearly every sector of their lives.” — Vikram Patel
- “Every 10 seconds we lose a child to hunger. This is more than HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis combined.” — Josette Sheeran
- “I want to talk to you about one of the biggest myths in medicine, and that is the idea that all we need are more medical breakthroughs and then all of our problems will be solved.” — Quyen Nguyen