April 7 is World Health Day, focusing this year on universal health coverage. If you want to help students understand the health crises facing their communities and the world as a whole, we have resources for you. Here are our top 5 global health lessons for World Health Day 2019:
1. Reporting on Epidemics
Students explore how health topics are presented in the news media and go behind the scenes of two Pulitzer Center reporting projects on Ebola and HIV/AIDS.
2. Ending Epidemics: Strategies for Preventing the Spread of Infectious Diseases
Students learn about the concept of epidemiology and how it is used to control or prevent the spread of infectious diseases through a hands-on simulation game and other activities.
3. Toxic Business: Pollution, Industry, and Health in India
Students learn about tannery and e-waste pollution in India and how it impacts people's health, as well as how Americans are connected to the crisis through consumer goods.
4. Outwitting Nature's Greatest Killer: Mosquitoes and Disease
Half a million people die from malaria annually. What do we do? Students use information from a multimedia story to debate strategies for preventing mosquito-borne diseases.
5. Cooking Up Pollution: The Health Crisis of Open Fires and Leaky Stoves
Students learn about health problems from solid fuel cooking and resultant indoor pollution, alternative cooking methods that could help, and obstacles to implementing change.