April 7 is World Health Day and this year the focus is on urbanisation and health. Running alongside is the "1000 cities - 1000 lives" campaign, which seeks to open up public spaces to health, whether it be activities in parks, town hall meetings, clean up campaigns or closing off portions of streets to motorised vehicles.
These events will be organised worldwide calling on cities to open up streets for health activities. Stories of urban health champions will be gathered to illustrate what people are doing to improve health in their cities.

Key Issues:

• There is a reason why urbanisation and health are the focus in 2010. Virtually all population growth over the next 30 years will be in urban areas, signaling that urbanisation is here to stay. It is associated with many health challenges related to water, environment, violence and injury, non-communicable diseases  and their risk factors like tobacco use, unhealthy diets, physical inactivity, harmful use of alcohol as well as the risks associated with disease outbreaks. (http://www.who.int/world-health-day/2010/about/en/index.html)
• The urban poor suffer disproportionately from a wide range of diseases and other health problems, which include an increased risk for violence, chronic disease, and for some communicable diseases such as tuberculosis and HIV.  The linkages between TB and HIV and AIDS have made the situation even worse. Globally 9, 4 million new cases of TB were recorded in 2008 with 1, 4 million of them being in People Living with HIV. (http://www.who.int/tb/publications/global_report/en/index.html)
• The major drivers, or social determinants, of health in urban settings are beyond the health sector, including physical infrastructure, access to social and health services, local governance, and the distribution of income and educational opportunities.

Story Ideas:

• At a time when southern Africa is still struggling to cope with a high HIV disease burden with thousands of people living with HIV and TB World Health Day presents the media with an opportunity to call on policy makers and civil society to ensure that commitments to ensure universal access to treatment, prevention, care and support are honoured.

• While southern Africa’s story has not been that positive, with more challenges than successes, there are many stories of men and women who have managed to triumph despite the challenges they face with resources. These stories of people getting tested for HIV early, accessing treatment, getting tested for TB and supporting others through illness need to be shared with others as the world commemorates World Health Day
• World Health day cuts across all diseases. The media needs to look at how different health systems are being run in the region and the different responses to disease like malaria, asthma, among others. If health systems are not fully responsive to the people’s needs, this is time to run feature stories on the state of the healthcare systems in Africa and find out from policy makers what they intend to do to bring the health systems to functionality. 
• Is world Health Day a major event in your country? Do people even know about it? Do people even know that health is their right? What is hindering access to health in your country? In some countries people cannot afford to go to a clinics because of the high costs associated with this. This is the time for the media to play an advocacy role and ensure that people are informed.
• Urban planning can promote healthy behaviours and safety through investment in active transport, designing areas to promote physical activity and passing regulatory controls on tobacco and food safety. Improving urban living conditions in the areas of housing, water and sanitation will go a long way to mitigating health risks. Building inclusive cities that are accessible and age-friendly will benefit all urban residents. Such actions do not necessarily require additional funding, but commitment to redirect resources to priority interventions, thereby achieving greater efficiency. Check on what your local authorities are doing to make a difference

Sources:
(http://www.who.int/world-health-day/2010/about/en/index.html)
(http://www.who.int/world-health-day/2010/en/index.html
(http://www.who.int/tb/publications/global_report/en/index.html)
(http://www.stoptb.org/globalplan/),
(www.safaids.net)