This week — 6 to 12 May — is Global Road Safety Week. This initiative encouraged by World Health Organization (WHO) aims to mobilize action for pedestrian safety since more than 270,000 pedestrians lose their lives on roads each year. The Week will draw attention to the urgent need to better protect pedestrians worldwide and generate action on the measures needed to do so.

“We are all pedestrians, and governments should put in place measures to better protect all of us,” says Oleg Chestnov, WHO Assistant Director-General of Noncommunicable Diseases and Mental Health. “When roads are safe, people will walk more, and this in turn will improve health and protect the environment.” 

Read more about WHO’s call for action to save lives and the measures needed to enhance safety on the roads.

Sunday is the World Day for Safety and Health at Work.

Prevention is more effective and less costly than treatment and rehabilitation. All countries can take concrete steps now to improve their capacity for preventing occupational diseases.

 Find out more here from International Labour Organization (ILO): http://ow.ly/kkICJ

Thursday is World Malaria Day.  Invest in the future. Defeat malaria.

Over the last decade, the world has made major progress in the fight against malaria. Since 2000, malaria mortality rates have fallen by more than 25%, and 50 of the 99 countries with ongoing transmission are now on track to meet the 2015 World Health Assembly target of reducing incidence rates by more than 75%.

Get more information from the World Health Organization (WHO) here: http://goo.gl/o69Y3

World Immunization Week starts on Saturday.

Many countries encounter serious challenges in vaccine supply and logistics, so the World Health Organization (WHO) and partners have drawn up new plans for children to get vaccinated to ensure that an additional quarter of a billion children are immunized by 2015.

Sunday is World Health Day.

This year the World Health Organization (WHO) places the focus on the global problem of high blood pressure which affects more than one in three adults worldwide.

High blood pressure, a largely hidden disease due to the lack of symptoms, is a major contributor to heart disease and stroke – which together make up the world’s number one cause of premature death and disability.

A report released today by the World Health Organization (WHO) concluded that overall cancer risks are low in Japan after the Fukushima nuclear incident that occurred two years ago.

This is a photo of a liquid storage tank that stands twisted at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. Photo: IAEA/Giovanni Verlini.

International efforts to address mercury - a notorious heavy metal with significant health and environmental effects - have been delivered a significant boost with governments agreeing to a global, legally-binding treaty called the Minamata Convention to prevent emissions and releases.