Health-EU - the European health portal covering a vast range of health topics, is now available in 20 European languages. The portal was first launched in May 2006 by the European Commission's Directorate General for Health and Consumer Affairs, and is a 'one stop shop' for Europeans wanting to find out what's happening across a broad range of health issues in their own countries and across Europe. Initially available only in English, it can now be accessed in 20 different official European languages. Health-EU is aimed at everybody interested in health, as well as healthcare professionals, scientists and policy makers.
The languages available are now: Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Estonian, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Maltese, Polish, Portuguese, Slovakian, Slovenian, Spanish and Swedish.
Healthier choices
One of the main goals of the Portal is to help people take responsibility for their own health, to raise awareness about health issues and to provide news of health related events and developments across Europe in one easy dose. There are six major thematic areas in the portal which provide reliable and easily accessible information and statistics on topics such as:
- "My Health" e.g. prenatal health monitoring, nutrition and physical activity, food and product safety.
- "My Lifestyle" e.g. nutrition, alcohol, drugs and tobacco, travel, sports and leisure, and sex.
- "My Environment" e.g. environmental health and consumer safety, physical, biological and chemical risks, road safety, and bioterrorism.
- "Health Problems" e.g. mental health, HIV/AIDS, influenza, cancer, heart disease and other non-communicable diseases.
- "Care for Me" e.g. patient safety, mobility, long-term care, treatment, and carers.
- "Health in the EU" e.g. policies, programmes, research, prevention and promotion, health indicators, and statistics.
Gateway to a healthy EU
A Member States' section gives access to health and health-related policies of all EU governments and further sections on European NGOs and international organisations give details of their work. Visitors will also find facts about the latest news, events, statistics and health indicators at European level, in addition to legislation and publications relevant to their health topic of interest. Moroever, there is information from all European agencies with a role in health, for instance those working on communicable diseases, drug prevention, medicines and health and safety at work.
Background
The Health-EU project is an initiative of the EU Public Health Programme 2003-2008 with financial support from the EU funding programme 'Interoperable Delivery of European eGovernment Services to public Administrations, Businesses and Citizens', which aims to promote greater involvement of the public, institutions, organisations and associations in health. The Portal also matches the aims of the e-Europe Action Plan - providing citizens with simple, clear and scientifically sound online information.
For further information, please visit:
http://health.europa.eu