HLTB16H3 Chapter Notes - Chapter 1: Public Health, Cryptosporidium, Typhoid Fever
21 May 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
Public Health
Chapter 1: Science, Politics, and Prevention
• It is expected that living in a civilized society that living conditions will be health
• In 2001, after the outbreak of cryptosporidium in the Milwaukee water supply, most
Americans regained a sense of trust in the safety of their environment
• In the mid 19th century, when record keeping began in England and wales, death rate
was every high especially among children
o Of every ten newborn infants, two or three never reaches their birthday
o Five or six died before they were six years old and only about three of ten lived
beyond the age of 25
o Tuberculosis was the single largest cause of death in the mid 19th century
• Epidemics of cholera, typhoid and smallpox swept through communities killing people of
all ages and making them afraid to leave their homes
• There are a uer of reasos hy people’s lies are asially healthier today tha they
were 150 years ago because of:
o Cleaner water
o Air
o Food
o Safe disposal of sewage
o Better nutrition
o More knowledge concerning health and unhealthy behaviours
• Public Health: as defined by the future of public health, organized community efforts to
ensure conditions in which people can be healthy
o Activities that society undertakes to prevent, identify and counter threats to the
health of the public
o The term public health refers to two different but related concepts
o We can say that the public health has improved since the 19th century meaning
that people take as a society to bring about and maintain that improvement are
also known as public health
• People look to government (local, state or national level) to take the responsibility of
providing pure water, efficient sewage disposal, hospitals, nursing homes and other
institutions
• Infectious diseases: disease caused by a microorganism (such as bacteria, protozoans,
fungi, or viruses) that enters the body and grows and multiples there
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
What is public health?
• Public health is not easy to define or comprehend
• Charles Edward A. Winslow, a theoretician and leader of American public health during
the first half of the 20th century defined public health in 1920 this way:
o The science and the art of preventing disease, prolonging life and promoting
physical health and efficiency through organized community efforts for the
sanitation of the environment, the control of community infections, the
education of the individual in principles of personal hygiene, the organization of
medical and nursing services for the early diagnosis and preventive treatment of
disease and the development of the social machinery which will ensure to every
individual in the community a standard of living adequate for the maintenance of
health
• Community: a specific group of people, often living in a defined geographical area, who
share a common culture, values and norms and are arranged in a social structure
according to relationships the community has developed over a period of time
• Wislo’s defiitio as highly effetie i reduig the threat of ifetious diseases
thereby increasing the average lifespan of Americans by several decades
• By the ’s, puli health as take for grated ad ost people ere uaare of its
activities
• New health problems were appearing
o The aids epidemic broke out, concern about environmental pollution was
growing, the aging population was demanding increased health services and
social problems such as teenage pregnancy, violence and substance abuse were
becoming more common
o Substance Abuse: the problematic consumption or illicit use of alcoholic
beverages, tobacco products and drugs including misuse of prescription drugs
• A study conducted by the Institute of Medicine and published in 1988 called The Future
of Public Health refocused attention on the importance of public health and did a great
deal to revitalize the field
o One of the first tasks the study committee set for itself was to re-examine the
definition of public health, reasoning that for it to be effective, public health had
to be broadly defined, giving a four part definition describing public health
mission, substance organizational framework and core functions
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
