World Health Day 2018: WHO raises awareness of global crisis in universal health coverage

More than 100 million people worldwide cannot access essential services without suffering financial hardship as a result

The World Health Organisation (WHO) marks World Health Day every year on 7 April, an occasion to raise international awareness about a specific public health concern.

Last year WHO tackled depression while 2018's theme is universal health coverage - ensuring people have access to disease prevention, treatment, rehabilitation and palliative care services without suffering financial hardship as a result.

This year's cause was chosen given that at least half of the world's population does not presently have access to essential services, according to WHO.

The organisation estimates that 100 million people are being pushed into "extreme poverty", defined as living on less than $1.90 (£1.36) per day, as a result of their medical expenses.

A further 800 million spend at least 10 per cent of their household budget on healthcare, accounting for 12 per cent of the global population.

"No one should have to choose between death and financial hardship. No one should have to choose between buying medicine and buying food," said the WHO's director-general Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

As outlined in last year's Tokyo Declaration on the subject, WHO is calling on nations to work together to extend universal health coverage to one billion more people by 2023 and halve the number facing extreme poverty to 50m.

All of the United Nations' (UN) member states have pledged their commitment to striving to achieve universal health coverage by 2030 as part of the institution's Sustainable Development Goals.

A founding principle of the WHO recognises health as a fundamental human right and the date on which World Health Day is held commemorates the body's establishment in 1948, meaning that WHO is precisely 70 years old today.