Celebrating World Health Day 2022: "Our Planet, Our Health"
Shirley Wilfong-Pritchard - 7 April 2022
Celebrating innovative public-health research on World Health Day.
World Health Day is celebrated on April 7 every year to mark the anniversary of the founding of the World Health Organization (WHO) in 1948. Each year a theme is selected that highlights a priority area of public health. This year’s theme is “Our Planet, Our Health.” WHO is focusing global attention on urgent actions needed to keep people and the planet healthy and foster a movement to create societies focused on well-being.
The University of Alberta’s School of Public Health is committed to improving the human and planetary condition. In the face of climate and economic change, the school drives multisectoral, community-engaged research where health, the environment, society and sustainability meet.
The climate crisis is a health crisis. Canada is warming about twice as fast as the global average—even more so in the North. Impacts are already being felt—coastal erosion, thawing permafrost, shifting ice, ecosystem changes, worsening heat waves, droughts, floods and wildfires, risks to critical infrastructure and impacts to food and water supplies.
A changing climate is a public-health issue. It affects people’s environment and impacts their physical and mental health and well-being, particularly in vulnerable populations here in Canada and around the world.
The following are some examples of ways the School of Public Health is taking action to protect the Earth, the health of its inhabitants and the well-being of societies.
Public health researcher and lead author on the latest global report on climate change, Sherilee Harper is a driving force behind a new graduate certificate program that will prepare students to seek solutions to a challenge affecting all aspects of society.
Poor health outcomes from climate change disproportionately affect vulnerable populations. Sherilee Harper’s research team, the Climate Change & Global Health Research Group, is working to change that.
Co-authored by associate professor Sherilee Harper, Canada Research Chair in Climate Change and Health, the publication explores the key risks of climate change on Inuit health and how to address them.
Kimberly Fairman, executive director of the Institute for Circumpolar Health Research (ICHR) is helping to revolutionize the way public-health policy is developed in Northern Canada.
Professor and associate dean Candace Nykiforuk is director of the Centre for Healthy Communities. The centre tackles complex social problems that impact health equity and the health of environments, municipalities, schools and Indigenous communities.
Invasive species are a leading cause of degraded aquatic ecosystems and can spread disease to other organisms, including humans. Associate professor Patrick Hanington’s research helps yield critical information on Chinese mystery snails.
The well-being of society includes equitable access to the basics—such as safe, clean drinking water. Randal Bell and Student Advocates for Public Health (SAPH) are trying to do something about it.
Professor Zubia Mumtaz works with the Canadian Association for Global Health. Her research focuses on social determinants of maternal health in the global context, looking at how factors such as gender, class and caste influence health.
Assistant professor Shelby Yamamoto, Climate Health and Environment Epidemiology Research Group, explores community-level impacts of climate change and chronic disease surveillance.
Associate professor Susan Chatwood of ICHR focuses on the systems that address determinants of health in the Arctic, including climate change, Indigenous values and geographical challenges.
Assistant professor Simon Otto is a veterinary epidemiologist. Leading the research group at HEAT, he works on antimicrobial resistance and foodborne disease.
Associate professor Stephanie Montesanti is a founding member of ICN and scientist with the Centre for Healthy Communities. She focuses on understanding chronic disease and health inequities in Indigenous and other underserved populations.
Associate professor Stephen Hodgins' research addresses real-world challenges of delivering programs to improve population health in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. He is editor-in-chief of the journal Global Health: Science & Practice.
A major focus of professor Stephanie Yanow’s work is on the interactions between malaria parasites of different species and the host immune system, particularly during infection in pregnancy.
A critical feminist medical anthropologist, professor Spitzer’s research focuses on the impact of the global economy on immigrants, migrants and refugees in different parts of the globe—most notably Southeast and East Asia, Canada and the Horn of Africa.