In 1999 in Brazil, Dr. Nedio Steffen, then president of the Brazilian Society of Laryngology and Voice, proposed a day to raise awareness of dysphonia as a sign of voice diseases, primarily laryngeal cancer. In short, the day spread throughout the world and on the website https://worldvoiceday.org/ you can see the events of this and past years. To date, in Italy there remains a significant excess risk of long-term death (time to recovery >15 years) for patients aged between 65 and 74 with laryngeal cancer. Smoking, alcohol and HPV infections remain the major risk factors although avoidable.
But dysphonia is not necessarily a sign of laryngeal cancer: it can result from vocal abuse due to improper use of the voice, especially if continued or in environments with a lot of noise, but also from recurrent infections of the airways or prolonged use of certain drugs...
The fact is that the means of communication that characterizes the human species is the voice and that our voice is an identity character much more than hair color or physical shape: for this reason, at least one day a year, let's remember our voice , of the importance it has for us every day, of the great work it does - no other organ can move at the speed of movement of our small vocal cords - and let's not underestimate disorders or variations that do not disappear in three-four days.
Good Voice everyone!
(See you at the UEP Voice Marathon next Saturday, if you want)