One of the dominant goods, especially nowadays, is health. The day that is dedicated to the World Health is April 7, with the 7th of April 1948, the day the World Health Organization was established, as a reference date. WHO was established with “the attainment by all people of the highest possible level of health” as its objective.
The World Health Day each year focuses on important issues of public health concerning the world, while this year’s World Health Day is dedicated to diseases transmitted by transmitters (‘vectors’), as mosquitoes, gnats, ticks, bedbugs , etc.
Statistically recognized as the most deadly disease transmitted by vectors, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (KEELPNO) is malaria, an infectious disease caused by the parasite “Plasmodium ” of malaria and transmitted mainly by the bite of an infected Anopheles mosquito. In Greece the disease was eliminated in 1974, after an intensive and painstaking control program (1946-1960). Since then, 30-50 incidents related (the vast majority) to a trip or stay in a malaria endemic country are being recorded annually in Greece. However, the disease which spreads faster in the world is dengue fever.
This year’s celebration of World Health Day is of special significance for our country, asin recent years the diseases transmitted by vectors have appeared at various locations. A typical example is the cases of infection by the West Nile Virus which are reported every year in Greece since 2010. The spread of West Nile Virus for the fourth consecutive year suggests the establishment of the virus in Greece and it is expected to continue this summer, based on official data by the KEELPNO.
