WHO calls for action: “Together for health. Stand with science.” to mark World Health Day

The World Health Organization (WHO) today calls on people everywhere to renew their commitment to working together and supporting science as the twin engines driving better health, under the World Health Day 2026 theme: “Together for health. Stand with science.” The campaign marks the anniversary of WHO’s founding on 7 April 1948, launching a year-long public health campaign. Human health has been profoundly transformed over the past century, largely due to scientific progress and international collaboration. The global maternal mortality rate has fallen by more than 40% since 2000, and deaths among children under five have been reduced by over 50%. Advances in technology, scientific knowledge and skills, and collaboration between different disciplines, sectors and countries continue to turn once-life-threatening health challenges – such as elevated blood pressure, cancer diagnoses or HIV infection – into manageable health issues, extending and improving lives worldwide.  Yet, health threats continue to grow, fuelled by climate impacts, environmental degradation, geopolitical tensions and shifting demographics. These challenges include persistent diseases and strained health systems as well as emerging diseases with epidemic or pandemic potential. Across the globe, thousands of scientists – together with organizations such as WHO – are accelerating research and developing policies, tools and innovations needed to protect communities today and safeguard the health of future generations. “Science is one of humanity’s most powerful tools for protecting and improving health,” said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization. “People in every country live longer and healthier lives on average today than their ancestors did, thanks to the power of science. Vaccines, penicillin, germ theory, MRI machines and the mapping of the human genome are just some of the achievements that science has delivered that have saved lives and transformed health for billions of people.” Science behind health progressScientific innovations are most powerful when they are widely adopted and used. Every success in improving human health reflects the collective work and collaboration of scientific organizations, policy- makers, heath workers and the public. For example:before modern anesthesia, surgery meant unimaginable pain. Today, safer medicines, affordable technologies and trained specialists allow life-saving operations to be performed while patients sleep comfortably. Scientific progress has helped democratize these advances, making safe surgical care accessible across the world, including in many resource-limited communities; over the past 50 years, global immunization efforts have saved over 154 million children from infectious diseases.