Public Health: Definition and Milestones, Essay Example

Definition of public health

The definition of public health has undertaken new meaning when perceived from the public health 101 concept.  Accordingly, Public health is seen to be taking a proactive and preventive approach focusing on the health of entire populations. At the same time people are still in great healthy. This is an alternative to addressing sickness and disease as a public health option. Instead, public health assumes a health promotion approach teaching people how to maintain health while health and not only restoring it when they become ill. As such, individuals in a community do not have to become ill to access public health services. In the same way as a doctor treats individual patients, public health attends to the entire community. It is executed through education and programs that keep populations healthy. If the tempo is not maintained the whole populations suffers (Riegelman 2010).

Discuss 2 milestones in public health

Two notable Milestones in Public health are environmental health and infectious disease control. Celebration of Earth day in 1970 signal American’s and the world’s awareness of developments regarding environmental safety and how sacred they are in preserving the earth’s integrity. Amendments to the1967 Clean Air Act enforcing statutory deadlines for states to comply with standard regulation can be recognized as another vital step in acknowledging the importance of environmental safety in our world. Lead poisoning regulations and industrial safety laws are just another few ventures that have been imposed ensuring that people on earth live in a safe clean environment (Mile Stones in Public Health, 2013). 

Next the mid twentieth century advancement in infectious disease control is another worthy milestone. Antibiotics and vaccines made a remarkable impact in the disease prevention and control public health intervention industry. While scientists are still researching vaccines for HIV/AIDS and struggling to control the spread of SARS people living in the twenty first century are have still benefited from numerous disease/ infection prevention and control advanced though public health surveillance and efficiency health promotion strategies (Mile Stones in Public Health, 2013).

An overview of the information provided on Global Health

Global health is a public health focus area. It begins by establishing a mechanism whereby communities and countries could strategically approach public health problems issues from a theoretical evidence based premise. Presently, the Public health Institute has designed programs for training providers in over 25 countries across the world. The institute has continuously provided support for policymakers and advocates in diverse settings all over the world. Interestingly, Public Health Institute activities PHI target marginalized populations such as those in Botswana and parts of the world stricken by poverty and presently being devastated with disease, especially, the HIV virus (Public Health Institute, 2013).

Importantly, the Institute finances a number of programs across the world. They include, ACCESS Health Worldwide; Adolescent Girls’ Advocacy & Leadership Initiative (AGALI); Alcohol Research Group; Center for International Tobacco Control; Center for Public Health and Climate Change; Cleaner Cookstoves: Building Global Capacity & Improving Public Health; Coalition Advancing Multipurpose Innovations; Global Health Fellows Program II; Global Youth Coalition on HIV/AIDS (GYCA); GOJoven; Health Intervention Projects for Underserved Populations and Health Spectrum Program. There are many other active projects while research is being conducted into the possible of   establishing more based on the community’s needs assessment profile (Public Health Institute, 2013).

References

Mile stones in Public Health (2013).  Accomplishments in Public Health over the Past 100 years. Retrieved on September, 4^th, 2013 from http://www.soph.uab.edu/isoph/pfizer/Milestones.pdf

Public Health Institute (2013). Global Health. Retrieved on September, 4th, 2013 from http://www.phi.org/focus-areas/?focus_area=global-health

Riegelman, R. (2010). Public Health 101: Healthy People – Healthy Populations. New York. James and Barnett