The Prevalence of Infectious Diseases - Essay Example

?How can public health professionals’ best promote and enhance the health of the planet? Introduction This paper is aimed at identifying various areas where public health can be effectively utilised along with various ways for public health professionals to enhance the health of populations. Public health has been investigated first in order to discern the extents of the field. This is followed by an investigation of various trends that are being utilised in the public health domain along with the associated issues. Various new and old avenues where public health is being implemented are also delineated in an effort to clarify how public health professionals could raise health standards. Public Health 2.0 is also discussed along with its primary applications and directions because it is being seen as the hallmark of new public health policy implementation. Discerning Public Health Public health is concerned with the prevention of disease, prolonging life as well as promoting health by utilising organised efforts in tandem with informed choices of the society, public and private organisations, individuals and communities. It concerns itself with threats to health identified by population health analysis. The subject population could be a few individuals or entire swathes of population across several continents. The WHO (World Health Organisation) defines the dimensions of health as the complete state of physical, mental and social well being and not just the absence of infirmity or disease. (WHO a, 2011) Public health uses an interdisciplinary approach that is based largely on epidemiology, health services and biostatistics. Intervention through public health is aimed at improving overall health and quality of life through both prevention and treatment of diseases and other physical and mental ailments. Healthy behaviour is promoted by surveillance of cases. Common measures to enhance public health may include promoting breastfeeding, hand washing, delivering vaccines, distributing condoms to restrict the transmission of STDs (sexually transmitted diseases) and the like. The demands of modern public health measures require the use of multidisciplinary teams of medical and other professionals. Generally teams are composed of physicians specialised in public health or community medicine, biostatisticians, engineers, epidemiologists, nurses, dental hygienists, nutritionists, veterinarians, dieticians, public health lawyers, health inspectors amongst others. (Public Health Agency of Canada, 2005) Trends in Contemporary Public Health The onset of the epidemiological transition curtailed the prevalence of infectious diseases throughout the 20th century. This caused the focus of public health to shift to dealing chronic diseases like cardiovascular problems and cancer. Developments in the more advanced nations had already decreased infant mortality rates to significantly lower levels through the application of preventive techniques. The unprecedented increase in average life spans throughout the 20th century is accredited to public health measures. These measures included controlling infectious diseases such as yellow fever, polio, smallpox and diphtheria as well as pervasive vaccination programs. Moreover, the introduction of health and safety policies for example occupational safety, tobacco control measures, road traffic safety, family planning and the like aided in establishing public health as an effective solution. A major source of average life span increase came from declines in the “urban penalty” through improved sanitation measures. Improvement measures included sewage treatment, chlorination of drinking water and water filtration. These measures led to sharp declines in deaths stemming from water borne diseases that attacked the digestive tract. (Cuter & Miller, 2005) These developments lie in contrast to the developing world which is plagued by preventable diseases as well as meagre child and paternal health measures that are exacerbated by rampant poverty and malnutrition. For example, the WHO has declared that the lack of breastfeeding in the first six months of a child’s life is responsible for a million child deaths annually. These could well easily be avoided by effective public health measures designed to deal with these preventable problems. (WHO b, 2011) Avenues for Public Health Attention Even with the massive strides in public health, there is still room for improvement. Emerging infectious diseases are making headway from one corner of the globe to the other with the increase in transport facilities. For example, SARS that originated in the Far East made an easy headway into North America just a few years ago. Similarly, the HIV/AIDS pandemic has stormed through its original origins to nearly all corners of the globe. It is not just diseases and pandemics that are presenting a challenge for modern public health care but lifestyle choices present a significant amount of challenges too. Increasing obesity especially in children around the globe presents a unique challenge for public health care. The rise in type II diabetes is a direct consequence of this obesity “pandemic”. Other socio economic challenges such as adolescent pregnancies also need to be dealt with. Another major avenue for public health to deal with is instigated by the various natural calamities that befall various parts of the planet each year. Health challenges created by natural disasters such as the Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004, Hurricane Katrina in 2005, earthquakes in Kashmir in 2008, earthquakes in Haiti in 2010 and Japan’s tsunami in 2011 all need to be dealt with by health care professionals on a war footing. On the other hand public health has broadened its focus with the emergence and growth of population health. Public health has expanded from individual risk factors and behaviour to include population wide health related phenomenon such as education, poverty, crime, inequality etc. Public health affirms that health is affected by wide ranging factors such as genetics, income patterns, social relationships, educational backgrounds, immediate living environments and the like. These factors have been labelled as the social determinants of health. Most societies display a social gradient as far as health is concerned. The poorest people suffer from the worst health conditions while the middle class displays health worse than that of the highest social stratum. (Wilkinson & Marmot, 2003) The emerging essence of public health attempts to address various health inequalities by pursuing population based policies that aid in improving health for the general population in an equitable fashion. Public Health 2.0 Public Health 2.0 is an internal movement within the domain of public health that is aimed at broadening the access of public health while making public health more user friendly and user driven. There are three major directions in which Public Health 2.0 is being applied. 1. The first approach is directed at using Public Health 2.0 similar to Health 2.0 by utilising methods in which conventional public health institutions and practitioners are reaching out using social media. (Wilson & Keelan, 2009) 2. The second direction is to use Public Health 2.0 in an effort to document public health research which utilises data collected from various sources such as social networking websites, cellular phones, search engines as well as other emerging technologies. (Vance, Howe, & Dellavalle, 2009) 3. The third direction for Public Health 2.0 is the domain of activities that are totally user driven. (Public Health 2.0, 2011) The most recent display of this kind of Public Health 2.0 initiative was the collection and sharing of information related to the environmental radiation levels in the after math of the Japanese tsunami in 2011. These initiatives could be utilised in a broad based perspective to empower public health professionals in order to deliver on the needs of today’s public health challenges. Conclusion Public health is a growing field especially in context of the various emerging threats to mankind. These threats stem from traditional as well as new challenges that are making public health a challenging venture. The introduction of web based technologies is being utilised by public health professionals to reach to wider audiences, to gather more data for research and to share new findings as well as to enhance communication. Public Health 2.0 is a major drive to ensure public health across the globe and further development and research can ensure that emerging threats such as HIV/AIDS, SARS, bird flu, obesity, social determinants etc. can be tackled better by public health professionals. Bibliography Cuter, D., & Miller, G. (2005). The Role of Public Health Improvements in Health Advances: The Twentieth Century United States. Project Muse. Demography 42 (1) . Public Health 2.0. (2011). Public Health 2.0. Retrieved August 1, 2011, from Public Health 2.0: http://www.publichealth2point0.ca/ Public Health Agency of Canada. (2005). Building the Public Health Workforce for the 21st Century. Ottawa. Vance, K., Howe, W., & Dellavalle, R. (2009). Social internet sites as a source of public health information. Dermatologic Clinics 27 (2) , 133-136. WHO a. (2011). About WHO. Retrieved August 1, 2011, from WHO: http://www.who.int/about/en/index.html WHO b. (2011, July). 10 facts on breastfeeding. Retrieved August 1, 2011, from WHO: http://www.who.int/features/factfiles/breastfeeding/en/index.html Wilkinson, R., & Marmot, M. (2003). The Solid Facts: Social Determinants of Health. WHO. Wilson, K., & Keelan, J. (2009). Coping with public health 2.0. Canadian Medical Association Journal 180 (10) , 1080. Read More