World Health Day is celebrated on April 7th, every year to mark the Anniversary of the establishment of the World Health Organization (WHO). World Health Day aims to highlight urgent areas of public health concern worldwide. Additionally, each year a theme is chosen to raise awareness of the world’s major health issues. This year the selected theme was “High Blood Pressure”. In the country like Pakistan high blood pressure remains a priority public health issue worldwide.
School of Public Health, Dow University of Health Sciences in collaboration with Dow International Medical College, Ojha Campus organized a Ceremony to celebrate World Health Day with the theme High Blood Pressure, Did you Know? A health Priority.
The Ceremony began with a poster competition where students, faculty and staff were invited to submit their posters based on the theme. A significant number of individuals (including students, faculty and staff) participated from different departments including: School of Public Health, Institute of Nursing and Department of Pharmacy.
Later the day’s ceremony was conducted. Ms. Atiya Hussain Khowaja, Sr. Instructor School of Public Health) introduced all the honorable guests, and the audience about the ceremony.
The Vice Chancellor of Dow University of Health Sciences, Professor Dr. Masood Hameed Khan presided as the Chief Guest of the ceremony. He highlighted the alarming consequences of high blood pressure to the audience and the media. Further, he, suggested the need for initiating the awareness and health promotion campaigns for prevention of high blood pressure among communities.
Dr. Javed Akhtar Sheikh, Operations Officer, World Health Organization, Sindh and Prof. Dr. Ali Mohammad Ansari, Former Principle Dow Medical College speaking as the Guest of Honors presented their views on the need of health promotion strategies for high blood pressure.
Dr. Hussain Bux Kolachi, Chairman, Department of Community Medicine, DIMC briefed about the historical and current practices for the Control of Hypertension.
Dr. Sabeena Jalal Khan, Vice Dean of School of Public Health, DUHS brief the participants about the progress report for School of Public Health. She also reported media about the symptoms of high blood pressure and urging for regular checkups.
Further, during the Ceremony, Message of the The Regional Director WHO, South East Asia for the Day was readout by by Dr. Syeda Kanwal Aslam, Sr. Instructor School of Public Health.
Extremely valuable guiding principles for high blood pressure from clinical perspectives were shared by Prof Dr. Muhammad Masroor, Principal DIMC), Dr. Afzal Qasim, Department of Cardiology, DUHS and Dr. Fariha Sadiq, Sr. Instructor Cardiology, Aga Khan University Karachi.
This was followed by a short student presentation by the students of DIMC presenting useful information regarding clinical aspect of Hypertension.The Ceremony was ended with a vote of thanks by Ms. Nadia Shah, Sr. Instructor School of Public Health.