World Health Day April 7 to Focus on Mothers, Children

WHAT: Observance of World Health Day and launch of World Health Report 2005, at the Pan American Health Organization, with Secretary of Health and Human Services Mike Leavitt, U.S. Agency for International Development Administrator Andrew S. Natsios, and PAHO Director Dr. Mirta Roses.

WHEN: Thursday, April 7 at 9 a.m.

WHERE: Pan American Health Organization, 525 23rd Street, NW, Room A, 2nd Floor.

WHO: Keynote Address: The Honorable Mike Leavitt, Secretary, Department of Health and Human Services; World Health Day Call for Action: Dr. Mirta Roses, Director, Pan American Health Organization (PAHO); Remarks for World Health Day and Health in the Americas Week: The Honorable Andrew S. Natsios, Administrator, U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID); Launch of World Health Report 2005: Dr. Gina Tambini, PAHO.

WHY: Maternal and child health is the theme for World Health Day 2005 on April 7th, which also marks the launch of the 2005 edition of the WHO World Health Report, an annual "report card" of global health that includes statistics about life expectancy, deaths from various causes and major illnesses in different world regions. With this theme and accompanying slogan, "Every Mother and Child Counts," PAHO and WHO aim to draw attention to the Millennium Development Goals of reducing maternal deaths by three-quarters and child mortality by two-thirds by 2015.