7 April 2010

Historically, the city has been an engine of economic growth, a centre of culture, and a catalyst for ideas. But while human innovation and evolution seems boundless, resources are finite. Urbanisation creates problems, so a focus on healthy cities must be part of the solution.

A billion people now live in the world’s urban slums, billions more add to the fixed and transient city populations. The urban population of Asia is expected to double between 2000 and 2030. The health sector needs to take the lead in calling attention to the enormous implications of urban growth for the health of the people who live and work in our cities.

Thus, WHO is devoting World Health Day 2010, marked on 7 April, to the theme of urbanisation and health. Our “1000 cities 1000 lives” campaign calls upon all cities worldwide to dedicate street spaces for the people to take part in healthy activities for a day. This is to highlight the effect that urbanisation has on our collective health globally and for us all individually.

Links

Activities in Thailand

·         List of Municipalities (Periodically updated) 

About this year’s theme

Get involved

Interactive Map

Register your city

Global Adult Tobacco Survey (GATS) Thailand, 2009

Over 14 million Thai adults, 46% of men and 9% of women, currently smoke or use tobacco products – that’s the bad news. But the good news is that 6 in 10 smokers are thinking about quitting and anti-cigarette campaigns on television are being noticed by over 74% of adult viewers. These are some of the results of the Global Adult Tobacco Survey (GATS) for Thailand which came out in late December 2009.

GATS is the global standard for systematically monitoring adult tobacco use (smoking and smokeless) and tracking key tobacco control indicators. It is a nationally representative survey with a consistent and standard protocol that is being used across 14 countries – Thailand, India,

Bangladesh, Viet Nam, China, the Philippines, Mexico, Poland, Uruguay, Brazil, Egypt, Turkey, the Russian Federation, and Ukraine. Among these, Thailand is the first country to complete the survey and has the report published.

GATS will enhance the countries’ capacity to design, implement and evaluate tobacco control programmes. It will also assist them to fulfil their obligations under the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC). In Thailand GATS was carried out by the Tobacco Research and Knowledge Management Center (TRC), Mahidol University, the Ministry of Public Health, and the National Statistical Office.

Links

About GATS

GATS Thailand Country Report 2009

  Part 1

  Parts 2-4

  Parts 5-7

  Part 8

  Parts 9-10

  Appendices A, B, C, D and E

GATS Thailand Fact Sheet [pdf, 3.41 mb]

Women and health: today's evidence tomorrow's agenda

Societies have made considerable progress in the past few decades but still fail to meet the health care needs of women at key moments of their lives, particularly in their adolescent years and in older age, a WHO report has found.

The recently released WHO report Women and health: today's evidence tomorrow's agenda found that being a man or a woman has a significant impact on health, as a result of both biological and gender-related differences. The health of women and girls is of particular concern because, in many societies, they are disadvantaged by discrimination rooted in socio-cultural factors. For example, women and girls face

 increased vulnerability to HIV/AIDS.

The report seeks to identify key areas for reform, both within and outside the health sector. These include identifying mechanisms to build strong leadership with the full participation of women's organizations, strengthening health systems to better meet women's needs throughout their lives, leveraging changes in public policy to address how social and economic determinants of health adversely impact women, and building a knowledge base that would allow a better tracking of progress.

Links

Download full report [pdf 3.21Mb]
Download executive summary [pdf 497kb]

Gender, women and health

Women’s health in Southeast Asia

The theme for this year’s World AIDS Day campaign, marked on 1 December, is Universal Access and Human Rights. It underscores the message that access to health care services for all in the prevention and treatment of HIV and AIDS is a basic human right. This theme also addresses the issue of stigma and discrimination against vulnerable groups and those infected with HIV and emphasises the dignity of all people.

The World AIDS Day campaign in Thailand will include major events held by Thai Red Cross, Ministry of Public Health, Thai NGO Coalition on AIDS (TNCA) and many other agencies.  TNCA will hold awareness activities at five satellite sites in Bangkok – the Hua Lumphong Railway Station, Mor Chit Bus Terminal and three sky-train stations, on 28 November.  This will be followed by the main activity at Chatuchak Park on 29 November. 

The events are not just limited to Bangkok, but will also be held in other provinces on a nationwide scale. The campaign aims to create awareness among the public about their basic human rights and those of HIV/AIDS patients. Awareness is a key weapon in the fight against all forms of stigma and discrimination.

Links

TNCA World AIDS Day Campaign (in Thai)

WHO South-East Asia Regional Office (SEARO)

WHO Headquarters (HQ)

More information on World AIDS Day

TRAINING COURSE  

International Training Course on Program Management of Prevention of Mother to Child HIV Transmission (PMTCT)

The ten-day course during 15 -26 February 2010 will be organized jointly by TICA, UNICEF, Department of Disease Control and Department of Health, Ministry of Public Health, Thailand at Narai Hotel, Bangkok, Thailand. The training will introduce PMTCT Overview, Services Components, HIV/AIDS Counseling, Stigma and Discrimination, Monitoring and Evaluation and Program Implementation Plan. For more information or any further enquiries, please visit www.itcthai.org or contact via e-mail: training@itcthai.org.

International Training Course on Management of Long - Term Adherence to ART

The five-day training course which will be held by Department of Disease Control, Ministry of Public Health, Thailand at Narai Hotel, Bangkok, Thailand during 22 – 26 March 2010, had the objectives to provide more knowledge and understanding about principles and concepts of Long-Term Adherence and to set up strategies, methodology including monitoring and evaluation of Long-Term Adherence. For more information or any further enquiries, please visit www.itcthai.org or contact via e-mail: training@itcthai.org.