Public Health Law in a New Century - Essay Example

"Public Health Law in a New Century" is an exceptional example of a paper on the health system.
Public health law, a significant public health tool, deals with the examination of various jurisdictional statuses of authorities of the government regarding the improvement of the health status of the general people considering all the societal limits and norms. It plays a crucial role in preventing illness and early death by sharing important parts of the role with fields of law and medicine (Gostin, 2000, p. 2840). This paper relates the public health law with a specific medical condition called Neonatal Tetanus.

Assessment:

Neonatal Tetanus is a form of Tetanus that is found in newborns, who do not have passive immunity that relates to having sufficient biological preventions from diseases, infections, etc. This disease is found largely in developing or less-developed countries like India, Bangladesh, Morocco, Nigeria, etc., whereas it is rarely found in developed countries. The basic information that is needed regarding this disease is whether women are immunized before or during pregnancy and whether they are given a clean delivery with the flawless cutting of the umbilical cord, and also whether there is proper care of the cord is being taken after the child’s birth. Information is also gathered regarding the control of the quality of the tetanus vaccine with its production and uses. Local authorities, such as the department of health of the governments of affected countries and international authorities like WHO; UNICEF gather data for these aspects related to the disease. These are being analyzed in terms of the percentage changes in the number of people being affected by the disease (Kerber et. all, 2007, pp. 1358-1359).

Policy development:

Different policies have been initiated by domestic and international organizations and authorities to prevent this disease. Different immunization activities have been initiated. Vaccines have been provided to different poor and under-developed sections of affected countries. These increased from 4% in 1986 to 90% in 2001 in Bangladesh. But the most remarkable step has been taken to improve the conditions and environments where deliveries take place. This has been named the “High-Risk” approach. This was deployed successfully in Latin America and the Caribbean in 1992. These policies have been applied in order to reduce the possibility of the women and hence the newborns getting less affected by the disease. But the most important policy needed is the awareness programs, including educational awareness and medical sense, which will help to reduce the intensity of the problem (UNISEF, 2010).

Assurance:

The UNICEF has provided several health promotion programs including the “High-Risk” program. The quality of this program has been maintained and monitored by the doctors, nurses, and volunteers of UNICEF. Several immunization programs have also been used by different public and private authorities with proper maintenance and monitoring systems by themselves. Clinical-care packages for reproductive health, childbirth, newborn baby, health packages for mother and child, etc. have been catered by WHO. Also, licenses have been provided for the use and distribution of vaccines of the disease (Kerber et. all, 2007, pp. 1360-1365).

Conclusion:

Several steps have been taken by governments of affected nations as well as several international organizations to cure Neonatal Tetanus. But lower education, lower medical sense, low income of the people, especially the mother are becoming the obstacles in the path of the development procedure of those promotional programs. If these problems can be mitigated, then the disease will also be cured at large.