WHO calls for ensuring equitable access to essential health services on World Health Day

Around the world, millions of people's right to health is increasingly coming under threat, the World Health Organization (WHO) cautioned on April 7, World Health Day.

While health is recognized as a fundamental human right in the constitution of at least 140 countries, the WHO Council on the Economics of Health For All has found that countries are failing to enact and implement laws that would ensure their populations get access to health services, indicating the fact that essential health services were not fully available to more than 4.5 billion people in 2021, accounting for over 50 percent of the global population.

With this year's theme of "My health, my right," the WHO called for safeguarding "the right of everyone, everywhere, to have access to quality health services, education and information, as well as safe drinking water, clean air, good nutrition, quality housing, decent working and environmental conditions, and freedom from discrimination."

The WHO has suggested governments implement the right to health in all sectors through legislation, covering areas like finance, agriculture, environment, justice, transport, labor and social affairs, with laws and regulations on specific issues, such as taxing tobacco, sugar and alcohol, reducing the amount of antimicrobials in the agri-food system by 30-50 percent by 2030, eliminating fossil fuel subsidies, and ensuring access to social protection.

It also stressed the need for investment in health as a "bottom line," noting that an extra annual funding of $200-328 billion a year, roughly 3.3 percent of national forecast GDP, is needed globally to enhance primary healthcare in low- and middle-income nations.

The organization has also encouraged the general public to be involved in health decision-making and urged safeguarding the right to health in war and conflict.

Established in 1948, World Health Day fosters awareness of crucial health issues concerning global populations.