WHO plans to improve health of 3bn people by 2023

The World Health Organisation (WHO) says it plans to transform the future of public health by targeting three billion people by 2023.

Mie Okamura of the Emergency Preparedness and Response, WHO, said this in Abuja on Saturday during the “Walk The Talk’’ peace awareness exercise.

Okamura said the WHO Walk The Talk was part of awareness creation on Non-Communicable Disease (NCDs) and to promote exercise. According to her, NCDs include heart disease, cancer, chronic respiratory disease and diabetes.

“This is what we call walk the talk, which is being done every week to sensitise the population and communities to have a healthier life.

“This is a way to show people that we need to exercise and to be active, which is very important and necessary to achieve good healthy living.

“WHO has three targets which are Universal Health Coverage (UHC). We want one billion people to have access to universal health coverage without having financial hardship.

“The second target is health emergencies protection, which means one billion more people will have better protection from health emergencies.

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“The third is healthier populations, which means that one billion more people will enjoy better health and well-being.” Okamura advised that people should cultivate the habit of exercising as it is the only way to keep healthy.

She called on Nigerians to exercise and eat healthy foods as festive season approaches.

Mary Stephen, the WHO regional officer for Africa, said the organisation had trained its staff to respond to health emergencies.

Stephen said Nigeria is prone to many emergencies and so to address such the organisation built the capacity and strengthened its staff to be ready for any emergencies.

According to her, some experts are drawn from ministries and agencies to be trained to handle cases of health emergencies.