4 min read.

On this day, the World Health Organization (WHO), the UN Agency for Health, CALLS TO ACTION all leaders and citizens to preserve and protect health and mitigate the planetary climate crisis as part of the “Our Planet, Our Health” campaign.

Highlights of the “Our Planet, Our Health” campaign:

• > Air Quality Observance: 99% of people breathe poor quality air, the main result of burning fossil fuels.
• > Global warming accelerates the spread of infectious diseases (through mosquitoes), reaching geographic limits never seen before.
• > Rising temperatures, loss of biodiversity, land degradation and water scarcity are increasing migratory movements and affecting the health of migrants.
• > The pollution created by plastics is found increasingly deep in the oceans and on top of mountains, progressively infiltrating our food and bloodstream.
• > Highly processed junk food and beverage systems are increasing the numbers of obesity, cancer and coronary heart disease while generating about 1/3 of global greenhouse gas emissions.
• > The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted and exacerbated global inequalities.

It is urgent to create sustainable societies that do not violate ecological limits and ensure that everyone has access to tools, systems, policies, and environments that save and improve their lives!

To ensure a healthy and green recovery from COVID-19, the WHO prescribes:

• > The preservation and protection of nature as the primary medicine for human health;
• > The investment in essential services such as water and sanitation and clean energy in health services;
• > Ensuring a quick and healthy energy transition;
• > Promote healthier and sustainable food industries;
• > Building healthy and livable cities;
• > The end of citizens’ taxes contribution to finance polluting systems.

Global commitments are urgent to achieve equitable health outcomes for these and future generations without destroying the planet’s health. Through the campaign on this World Health Day, WHO calls on governments, organisations, corporations, and citizens to share their actions to protect the planet and human health.

And in our community, there are several projects whose mission and solutions already promote the protection of human health (and the planet), contributing to achieving the Sustainable Health Goal (SDG 3) of the UN 2030 Agenda: Quality health and well-being. For all!

Manicómio is a space for the creation of Art Brut and a gallery, a pioneer in Portugal. It brings together artists with mental illness and other creatives in the same co-work and dedicates to training psychosocial and professional reintegration.

Mentora Health created a digital platform that aims to help improve the quality of life of cancer patients.

Nevaro develops digital health solutions for mental health management, therapeutics, wellness and performance optimisation based on clinically validated gamification strategies and biofeedback.

Glooma creates awareness of the importance of breast cancer prevention, aiming for more women to make early diagnoses, avoiding aggressive treatments, mutilating surgeries or even death. Glooma created the SenseGlove, an easy-to-use glove for performing domestic palpation exams. The application shows the results, which will or will not recommend going to the doctor.

Clynx aims to transform Physiotherapy treatments into motivating and pleasant experiences for the patient through a video game-based helpful solution both to use in the clinic and at home.

Actif provides ready-to-use content with physical and cognitive benefits and, at the same time, fun. In addition, it helps institutions plan activities to improve service to users, giving them more time for individual intervention and in exceptional cases.

Zen Klub promotes flexible online psychological counselling at competitive market rates. Its mission is to promote a healthy lifestyle and break down stigmas on the use of these services.

NoHarm.ai is a tool that uses artificial intelligence and cloud computing to bring more agility and security to Clinical Pharmacy professionals.

Dioscope is a medical decision support platform. It uses an intelligent chatbot that improves diagnosis, presents the latest guidelines or medical calculators, and has a learning centre with courses from interns to specialists. It was one of the projects selected for funding by the +Plus Fund this year at Scaling Axis.

Dreamwaves develops intuitive and inclusive 3D audio solutions. For example, its waveOut navigation app used spatial audio and augmented reality to make it possible for everyone to reach their destination quickly and safely. Its mission is to make navigation easier for everyone. The navigation app runs on a smartphone that is currently available for iOS.

Vencer Autismo, a project discussed in more depth in the blogpost we launched on World Autism Awareness Day, promotes the inclusion of people with autism by understanding and reducing stigma. More than 55,000 people from 60 cities have participated in Vencer Autismo’s events and lectures.

Latest news from the World Health Organization (WHO):

• > UN wants health and protection to be a priority in Ukraine. It has already sent a batch of antiretrovirals for HIV treatment for the next 12 months.
• > UN Deputy Chief Amina Mohammed opened the Asia-Pacific Forum on Sustainable Development, calling for more funding to help those most affected by the pandemic.
• > All European countries have already reached the SDG on maternal mortality! In addition, WHO reinforces the importance of postpartum care and has new global guidelines in a single guide.
• > United Nations report claims that 50% of global pregnancies are unplanned. In addition, WHO releases a unique guideline to improve abortion safety.
• > In 2 years of the pandemic, the UN warns of “scandalously uneven” delivery of vaccines: the first dose has not yet reached 3 billion people. However, WHO celebrates progress in the exemption of patents for the immunisation against Covid-19: the United States, the European Union, India and South Africa have drafted an initial agreement.

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