World Health Day is celebrated on April 7^th and the theme of this year is “75 years of improving public health”. It marks the 75th anniversary of WHO's public health achievements that have improved the quality of life, encouraging people to take action against the health challenges of today and tomorrow.

Public health is a broad topic covering various fields such as healthcare, epidemic prevention and control, environmental sanitation, maternal and child health and so on. It is of great significance to improve the living standards of citizens, promote the modernization of urban governance, and realize the sustainable development of cities. This week's IN FOCUS will showcase four cities’ innovations in strengthening public health and improving citizens’ living standards through epidemic prevention and control, food safety, drinking water sanitation and healthcare for the elderly.

São José dos Pinhais, Brazil

Digital Platform and Social Participation Campaign to Improve Public Health Response

Urban expansion in São José dos Pinhais has influenced wildlife habitat, exposing both humans and animals to the risk of infectious diseases. In recent years, there has been a bulge in the number of yellow fever cases. To prevent an outbreak of the epidemic, the municipal government of São José dos Pinhais launched a public health campaign using SISS-Geo, a mobile application designed by the Brazilian government. SISS-Geo enables its users to record and locate any carcass or potentially polluted areas they find to the municipal health ministry. By integrating citizens with the public health monitoring program, SISS-Geo enhances the public health ministry’s competence to monitor the environmental condition.

The public health ministry collects data to identify and project potential viral outbreaks, informing the rollout of vaccination campaigns. The campaign has proven that using the SISS-Geo Platform for monitoring non-human primate health in real-time is beneficial: On the one hand, it gives public health officials up to two months’ advance notice of an outbreak, time enough to inoculate thousands of people. On the other hand, it allows time to develop animal protection initiatives that help protect wildlife.

Learn more: http://www.guangzhouaward.org/a/1316.html?lang=en

Bandung, Indonesia

The Roles of Public Health Service Through OMABA Cooking Centre for Managing Malnourished and Stunting Children

Bandung is the second-largest city in Indonesia, with a population of nearly 1,700,000 people. To help malnourished and stunted children and reduce stunting rate and mortality, the Riung Bandung Public Health Service proposed an initiative. The initiative adopts strategies to ensure that the supplementary food is conveyed to the targeted children and eaten up without compulsion by improving the taste and nutrition of the processed food. The food is delivered to target children with motorcycle taxis by women organization.

The initiative has directly improved the nutritional status of children under five in the pilot district. Malnourished children’s cases number decreased from 29 in 2013 to 0 in 2019. The initiative is innovative because it goes beyond the conventional programs of supplementary food distribution, avoiding the mismatch between supply and demand due to government limitations and agency loss in bureaucracy. The initiative is a positive development towards women's empowerment, for it has also facilitated its members, most of whom are females, with food-producing skills and entrepreneurship passion.

Learn more: http://www.guangzhouaward.org/a/1322.html?lang=en

Puri, India

Drink From Tap Mission – Pure for Sure Drinking Water Deli

Puri is a municipality in the state of Odisha in eastern India, which is home to more than 41,000 households. However, over half of the households do not have access to piped water. Among those households that have such access, some of them are still living without water from a treated source. This issue carries huge public health risks and spells out aggravated inequality.

To address this problem, the local government launched the Drink From Tap Mission in 2019. It is a state intervention that aims to supply every household with quality tap water which can be used for drinking and culinary purposes without filtration or boiling. Currently, the initiative has benefited 80,000 residents, especially slum dwellers, as well as the environment: As one of the four pilgrimage centers of India, Puri attracts 50,000 daily pilgrims with its famous Shri Jagannath Temple. Thanks to the promotion of direct drinking water, the demand for bottled water among tourists has decreased, which has saved approximately 365 tons of plastic waste every year.

Learn more: http://www.guangzhouaward.org/a/1424.html?lang=en

Nice, France

27 Delvalle: an urban health living lab

Nice has a high proportion of senior citizens for a city of its size -- 28% of residents are over 60 years old. As a result, the city of Nice is facing healthcare challenges posed by an aging population. Subsequently, access to high-quality healthcare and notably at-home care has become a priority for the city's administration.

The City of Nice is responding to a growing community need for providing senior citizens with quality at-home healthcare by establishing a center dedicated to digital health innovation, offering technological solutions (simulation, agile methods, design thinking) that will improve the way healthcare is delivered.

The project brings together healthcare stakeholders to create tools and services for senior citizens to enable independent living. At the center's living-lab, users are directly involved in the evaluation and testing of new products and services. An e-Health Business Innovation Centre and co-working space is supporting start-ups and boosting the creation of new jobs in the ‘silver economy’.

Learn more: https://use.metropolis.org/case-studies/nice-fosters-healthcare-innovation