Reflaction paper for public health class (pbhl2000) - Essay Example

ver, hospitalization and morbidity statistics are too alarming that it remains a question whether our government is serious about its concern on public health. Published in 2004 in The International Journal of Tuberculosis and Lung Disease, Zaher’s article titled, “Smoking-Related Diseases: The Importance of COPD” presents the glaring reality regarding our present public health status, that is, the government’s efforts to reduce smoking and promote public health are ineffective. Zaher et al.

’s article article is very informative as it presents data about smoking-related diseases, especially COPD. It is also very implicative as it analyzes different cases of smoking-related diseases, and suggests more concern on COPD cases. Moreover, it is predictive as it provides the smoking disability adjusted life years (DALYs) till year 2020. The article presents valuable information about smoking-related diseases. First, smoking is still rampant, given the number of smoking cases and smoking-related diseases.

According to the article, there is continuous increase in the cases of smoking-related diseases from 1999 and the number is still expected to increase in the future. In particular, deaths related to smoking are expected to increase from 53,238 in 1999 to 76,390 in 2020 (Zaher et al. 1425). Cases of COPD are expected to rise even more than other reasons by the year 2020 (Zaher et al. 1425). Furthermore, the cost of public health on smoking-related diseases alone is yet to rise with the continuous increase in the number of cases.

Among which, lung cancer cost will remain the highest as it has proven in the year 2000 survey. Zaher et al.’s article is also implicative as it carefully analyzes different cases of smoking-related diseases. According to the research, limited attention is given to COPD, considering the higher cases of lung cancer and chronic heart disease (CHD). Nevertheless, the authors emphasize that more attention should be given to COPD