Public health is the area of science and practice focusing on anything that impacts the health of communities. Public health can be a confusing term to fully understand. That is because public health is everything. Everything in our surroundings impacts our health. Public health as a field works to improve the wellbeing of communities globally and can include interventions to promote healthy lifestyle choices, research for diseases and illness, preventative interventions, and responses to health crises. Interventions in public health can target communities as small as your local neighborhood or as large as the entire world, as we are seeing with the COVID pandemic.
You might encounter public health interventions through educational programs, policy initiatives, research projects, support services, health communications, and other community resources. While your doctor works to care for you as an individual, public health professionals work with communities to prevent adverse health outcomes and disparities. Public health includes topics that you might not think of as part of your overall health, including mental health, economic stability, access to food, the environment, transportation, education, living conditions, housing, natural disasters, and water and sanitation.
Public health is important because it helps to catch disease outbreaks early, research advancements to save millions of lives, identify interventions for oppressed or marginalized groups, keep the public aware of tools to stay healthy, and advocate for those most in need. The COVID vaccination initiative is one example of a public health intervention that we are all living through right now. Initiatives from the past two centuries including family planning, motor vehicle laws, air and water pollution regulations, and hurricane relief.
History of Public Health
While communities have been caring for each other since the beginning of humanity, modern day public health began gaining traction in the late 1700s and early 1800s. In the 1750s, it was discovered that dietary changes could treat scurvy and just a few decades later it was found that cowpox vaccination can prevent smallpox. During this time, the United States began requiring immigrants entering the US to complete a health inspection and state and local health departments began forming.
Early 1800s physicians in Western Europe and then eventually the United States began collecting statistics regarding social problems and health issues that occurred following the Industrial Revolution. One of the first major public health discoveries occurred in London by Dr. John Snow who used statistics and maps to identify the source of a deadly cholera outbreak. As medical science advanced, statistics became more relevant in helping to prevent disease spread. Additional public health practices began at this time, including collecting birth and death records, improving agriculture and cooking practices, and developing safe water sanitation and sewage.
Eventually, in the 1900s, federal In 1970, smallpox was declared eradicated. As the late 1900s progressed, more health policies and programs were formed both in the US and globally. More safe and effective vaccines were created, campaigns to reduce tobacco use became successful, HIV/AIDS research progressed, and there were great improvements in maternal mortality and child health. As we face the COVID pandemic, we are seeing firsthand the importance of public health interventions. We all have a role to play in promoting, developing, and advocating for public health initiatives and policies to keep our global community safe.
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