Today, April 7, is World Health Day, an event that has been celebrated annually since 1948 to create awareness on a specific health issue of concern to people all over the world, and to the World Health Organization (WHO). This year, the theme – My health, my right – brings attention to the fact that everyone should have access to quality health services.

According to WHO, more than half of the world’s population – at least 4.5 billion people  – were not fully covered by essential health services in 2021. “Around the world, the right to health of millions of people is increasingly coming under threat” from diseases, disasters, conflict and climate change.

In the Western Pacific Region, two out of every five individuals do not have access to essential health services, WHO Regional Director Saia Ma’u Piukala said, equating that ratio to an estimated 782 million individuals. These individuals “still do not have full access to at least one essential health service, such as immunization, pregnancy and newborn care; treatments for communicable diseases, such as tuberculosis and HIV, as well as for noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) such as diabetes and hypertension.”

A person’s right to health does not only mean health services but also includes the right to other basic conditions for a healthy life such as safe drinking water, clean air, good nutrition, quality housing, decent working and environmental conditions, and freedom from discrimination.

For instance, people’s health is also affected by climate change issues.  WHO cited the burning of fossil fuels as “simultaneously driving the climate crisis and taking away our right to breathe clean air, with indoor and outdoor air pollution claiming a life every five seconds.”

WHO listed the right to health as: The right to “safe and quality care, without any discrimination; to privacy and confidentiality of one’s health information; to information about one’s treatment and to informed consent; to bodily autonomy and integrity; and to make decisions about one’s own health.”

World Health Day is celebrated to urge governments to accelerate action on health programs to realize the right to health of their people.

As individuals, we join the WHO in encouraging citizens to join actions and discussions on the health requirements of communities to appeal to political leaders to act on them.  There are many health issues which need more support from the public and private sectors – good nutrition, clean air, and safe drinking water.

In the Philippines, one of the important health issues is good nutrition, particularly during the first 1,000 days of a child. “Poor nutrition in the first 1,000 days can cause irreversible damage to a child’s growing brain, affecting the ability to do well in school and earn a good living – and making it harder for a child and family to rise out of poverty.”

This is the advocacy of the Children’s First One Thousand Days Coalition (CFDC) which calls on government and private sectors to continue this initiative in all barangays around the country.  It is a health program that could be considered as an individual’s, a community’s, or a corporation’s advocacy to make the right to health accessible to more people.

We urge government to craft and implement policies that make quality health services more accessible to all Filipinos, especially those living in geographically isolated areas, keeping in mind that truly, “health is an investment in every country’s present and future.”