World Health Day 2005

Imagine my surprise to look down at the calendar and realize that World Health Day 2005 (April 7) had already come and gone, with hardly a notice in the news.

The theme of this year's World Health Day is "Make Every Mother and Child Count" and it focuses on the health of women and children as a vital aspect of development. This, of course, is part of a larger focus of the World Health Organization on health as an issue of development and security. The argument is quite simple: human capital--education and training--is one of the most important investments that a developing country can make, and health is a vital part of any investment in human capital--especially with health issues such as AIDS that strike disproportionately at the working-age population.

The World Health Report 2005 is available online at the WHO/OMS website.