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World Thrombosis Day (WTD) is a global health awareness campaign focusing attention on the often overlooked and misunderstood disease burden caused by thrombosis, also known as blood clots, globally.

An annual day that energizes a collective drive to increase awareness and action through educational activities for the public and health professionals throughout the year, year to year, the WTD campaign partners with thrombosis and hemostasis societies, patient advocacy groups, medical/scientific organizations and other interested parties from around the world who seek to: a) Increase the awareness about the prevalence and risks from thrombosis; b) Reduce the number of undiagnosed cases; c) Increase the implementation of evidence-based prevention; d) Encourage health care systems to implement strategies to ensure “best practices” for prevention, diagnosis and treatment; e) Advocate for adequate resources for these efforts and increased support for research to reduce the disease burden from thrombosis; and, f) Ultimately save lives.

Created by the International Society of Thrombosis and Haemostasis (ISTH), www.isth.org, WTD and its mission supports the World Health Assembly's global target of reducing premature deaths by non-communicable disease — of which cardiovascular diseases are an important part — by 25 percent by 2025, as well as support the WHO global action plan for the prevention and control of non-communicable diseases in the 2013-2020 time frame.

October 13, 2014 was selected because it is the birthday of Rudolf Virchow, the pioneer in the pathophysiology of thrombosis. It was this German physician and pathologist who first developed the concept of “thrombosis” and made crucial advances in our understanding of this often mis- or undiagnosed condition through the concept of pathological processes.

More information on World Thrombosis Day is available at www.worldthrombosisday.org.