News
31.05.2026 – World No Tobacco Day
May 31 is declared by the World Health Organization (WHO) as World No Tobacco Day. This year's theme is "Unmasking the appeal – countering nicotine and tobacco addiction", with the aim of drawing attention to the strategies of the tobacco and nicotine industry. The industry responds to the regulation of traditional cigarettes by promoting alternative products and focuses primarily on young people, whom it appeals to through attractive design, a wide range of flavors and promotion on social networks. As part of the protection and promotion of health, the National Institute of Public Health (NIPH) also joined the campaign. Every year, it carries out the National Survey of Tobacco and Alcohol Use in the Czech Republic (NAUTA) and publishes the data obtained on the use of tobacco, nicotine and alcohol among the population of the Czech Republic (2022–2025).
Editorial board
05.02.2026 – Changes in the Editorial Board of the Hygiena journal
At the meeting of the Editorial Board of the Hygiena journal, held on January 28, 2026, at the National Institute of Public Health in Prague, Professor Jana Jurkovičová, MD, PhD, announced her decision to step down from her position as Vice-Chair of the Editorial Board and to conclude her membership. Professor Jurkovičová had served on the Board since 2014, holding the position of Vice-Chair since July 1, 2019. We would like to express our deepest gratitude to Professor Jurkovičová for her many years of selfless dedication to the development of the journal. We wish her continued health, well-being, and much happiness in both her personal and professional life.
Effective February 5, 2026, Professor Ľubica Argalášová, MD, PhD, MPH, also from the Institute of Hygiene at the Faculty of Medicine, Comenius University in Bratislava, has been appointed as the new Vice-Chair. Professor Argalášová is a long-standing member of the Editorial Board, and we wish her every success in her new role.
Furthermore, effective February 5, 2026, Professor Kvetoslava Rimárová, MD, PhD, has been appointed as a member of the Editorial Board. Professor Rimárová works at the Department of Public Health and Hygiene, Faculty of Medicine, Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Košice. Her research focuses primarily on nutritional and environmental hygiene, epidemiology, and public health.
Editorial board
16.09.2025 – Living Conditions and Health – Nový Smokovec 2025
The XXXI International Conference Living Conditions and Health will be held on September 22-24, 2025 in the Spa Nový Smokovec, High Tatras, Slovakia. The event is organized by the Slovak Society of Hygienists SLS, the Institute of Hygiene of the Faculty of Medicine of Comenius University in Bratislava, the Regional Public Health Office based in Poprad, and the Slovak Epidemiological and Vaccinological Society SLS. The conference will focus on the topics of nutrition, nutritional status and health, epidemiology and prevention of chronic and infectious diseases, occupational health protection and ergonomics in the working environment, noise, the issue of vibrations and other physical factors in the living and working environment, the protection and promotion of the health of children and youth, and education and training in public health.
Editorial board
20.05.2025 – 100th anniversary of the National Institute of Public Health
The National Institute of Public Health (NIPH) has been represented by a number of outstanding experts, recognised not only in Czech but also in international professional circles. On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the institute celebrated this year, we would like to commemorate some of these personalities in the Hygiena journal. In Issue 1, we commemorate the 105th anniversary of the birth of doc. RNDr. Miroslav Polster, CSc (1920–1992), a leading figure in the field of microbiology, mycotoxicology and mycology. His professional work was connected with the Department of Hygiene and Epidemiology at the Faculty of Medicine of Jan Evangelista Purkyně University in Brno, however, after his retirement he joined the newly established Centre for Hygiene of Food Chains in Brno under the Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology in Prague (now the Centre for Health, Nutrition and Food in Brno, NIPH in Prague). Another paper discusses the turbulent life and work fate of MUDr. František Gallia (1912–1950), one of the founders of Czechoslovak virology, and his wife MUDr. Jindřiška Galliová (1913–2012), who worked for decades in the Department of Tuberculosis at the NIPH. MUDr. Galliová's memoirs have been previously published in the Pohybové ústrojí journal, with whose permission we reprint the text. On the pages of Hygiena they are now published in an extended form, supplemented with explanatory notes and unique photographs.