The bedrock for economic growth and social progress is HEALTH and despite technological advancement in all fields, including the medical field, many areas of the world still reel under health disparities especially among rich and poor nations.

World Health Day falls on 7th April, 2010. This day was instituted to remember and celebrate the founding of the World Health Organization, which came into existence in 1948. Year after year, The WHO takes up a burning global health issue as its goal for World Health Day.

Urbanization has been recognized as one of the most formidable challenges of the 21st century due to its effects on global health and that is why ‘Urbanism and Healthy Living’ forms thetheme of World Health Day 2010.  The main focus of WHD 2010 is to incorporate health into urban public policy.

The campaign “1000 cities, 1000 lives” will begin during the World Health week 7-11 April 2010, and will be witness to clean-up campaigns, meetings and awareness campaigns on health issues. The campaign will initiate the need for more public spaces for better health.  The health drive will also seek to emulate 1000 success stories of urban heroes who have championed the cause of health in their cities and made a remarkable difference to health in their setting.

One overriding question in the context is - why is life expectancy falling despite making significant strides in the medical field? The health statistics might hold the answer.