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Public Health
Public Health is concerned with threats to the overall health of a community
based on population health analysis. Health is defined and promoted differently
by many organizations. The World Health Organization, the United Nations body
that sets standards and provides global surveillance of disease, defines health
as: "A state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely
the absence of disease or infirmity." Public health experts agree this
definition is incomplete. Other components included in an individual's health
are nutritional, spiritual, and intellectual.
The population in question can be as big as a handful of people or, in the case
of a pandemic, whole continents. Public health has many sub-fields, but is
typically divided into the categories of epidemiology, biostatistics and health
services. Environmental, social and behavioral health, and occupational health,
are also important fields in public health.An alternative definition by Winslow
from Modern Medicine in 1920 is: "the science and art of preventing disease,
prolonging life and promoting health through the organised efforts and informed
choices of society, organisations, public and private, communities and
individuals."Today, most governments recognize the importance of public health
programs in reducing the incidence of disease, disability, and the effects of
aging, although public health generally receives significantly less government
funding compared with medicine. In recent years, public health programs
providing vaccinations have made incredible strides in promoting health,
including the eradication of smallpox, a disease that plagued humanity for
thousands of years.One of the most important public health issues facing the
world currently is HIV/AIDS. Tuberculosis, which claimed the lives of authors
Franz Kafka and Charlotte Brontë, and composer Franz Schubert, among others, is
also reemerging as a major concern due to the rise of HIV/AIDS-related
infections and the development of strains resistant to standard
antibiotics.Another major public health concern is diabetes. In 2006, according
to the World Health Organization, at least 171 million people worldwide suffer
from diabetes. Its incidence is increasing rapidly, and it is estimated that by
the year 2030, this number will double.
A controversial aspect of public health is that related to the
control of smoking. Many nations have implemented major initiatives to cut
smoking, such as increased taxation and bans on smoking in some or all public
places. Proponents argue that smoking is one of the major killers in all
developed countries, and that governments have a duty to reduce the death rate,
both through limiting passive smoking and by providing fewer opportunities for
smokers to smoke. Opponents say that this undermines individual freedom and
personal responsibility (often using the phrase nanny state in the UK), and
worry that the state may be emboldened to remove more and more choice in the
name of better population health overall. However, proponents counter that
inflicting disease on other people via passive smoking is not a human right, and
in fact smokers are still free to smoke in their own homes.Learn Public Health,
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