Discussion posts.
QUESTION 1(a):Public health practice was initially concerned with infectious and environmentally related diseases, but in recent years has evolved to focus more on injury prevention, substance abuse, violence, tobacco-related, and other chronic diseases. Present at least one pivotal legal and historical occurrence that resulted in this shift of public health effort. Justify your rationale with supportive evidence.
QUESTION 1(b):Review the Ten Great Public Health Achievements (Exhibit 1-2) of your textbook. Select one of the 10 achievements. What is the importance of your chosen achievement to society? In your own words, defend its right to be considered a “Great Public Health Achievement.” Select three other peers’ postings and debate their analysis. Keep in mind all postings should be substantive and well supported with examples, details, and evidence. Brief responses are not appropriate.
For Question (1b) The text book to use is
Public Health Administration
Principles for Population-Based
Management
Second Edition
Edited by
Lloyd F. Novick, MD, MPH
Director
Division of Community Health and Preventive Medicine
Professor
Department of Family Medicine
The Brody School of Medicine
East Carolina University
Greenville, North Carolina
Cynthia B. Morrow, MD, MPH
Commissioner of Health
Onondaga County, New York
Assistant Professor
Departments of Medicine and Pediatrics
SUNY Upstate Medical University
Syracuse, New York
Glen P. Mays, PhD, MPH
Associate Professor
Vice Chair, Director of Research
Department of Health Policy and Management
Fay W. Boozman College of Public Health
University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences
Little Rock, Arkansas
Jones and Bartlett Publishers. Sudbury, Massachusetts
Public Health Administration
In the past people were living natural lives and just interacting with their environment. The people did not depend much on the industrial manufactured goods. The people used to depend on natural foods from the farms and did not use chemicals during the planting of plants. There was limited or no immorality and therefore the social crimes were reduced. The people used to live in contaminant free surroundings s and therefore they were not at risk of getting chronic diseases such as cancer. The life styles in the past were very simple (Cordain et al., 2005). Over a time there has been an interaction between the peoples’ internal genetic makeup interacting with the external factors.Since the chemical industrial revolution in the 1940’s the population has been bombarded with chemicals. There has been building of many industries globally which have led to things such as greenhouse emissions which destroy the ozone layers exposing the people to disease like skin cancer. The people have also been exposed to breathing contaminated air from these industries and have ended up getting diseases like lung cancer. There are no good places to dump the waste from these industries and the waste products end up being dumped in the rivers. Some of the industries do not treat the waste before dumping. The people are using water from rivers for domestic purposes such as cooking and bathing. They end up consuming these harmful chemicals in their bodies (Cordain et al., 2005). Due to the industrial revolution, immorality has increased andthere has been a lot of drug abuse especially by the youths. Some of the substances which are abused include tobacco, alcohol, heroine, and cocaine. The moral decay has mostly been the cause of the substance abuse. These drugs end up causing kidney and liver problems. The people have also changed their diet where by most do not consider the nutritious and natural foods but they go for the sweet foods and drinks which are manufactured using chemicals (Cordain et al., 2005). These chemicals normally disrupt the normal functioning of the endocrine system. In the present, the average person born in the United States of America has 50 or more industrial chemicals in his/ her blood which have been proved to disrupt the normal functioning of the hormones (Cordain et al., 2005). Examples of these chemicals include: DDT, PBCs, dioxin, bisphenol-A and phthalates. Radon which is a radioactive gas released from the normal decay of elements such as uranium, thorium and radium which are found in the rocks and soils. Radon has been noticed to increase with the industrial revolution. It is now present in nearly all the air. Everyone at the moment is breathing radon. There are therefore increased cases of lung cancer. When radon decays, it gives off tiny radioactiveparticles. These radioactive particles destroy the cells which line the lungs (Cordain et al., 2005). The public health efforts are now aiming at injury prevention because many people are working in the industries as employees. Due to the moral decay leading to substance abuse and violence the public health, government organization and non-governmental organizations are putting all their effort in trying to launchcampaigns against the moral decay. The public health is also spending a lot of expenses and time to address the issues on chronic diseases (Cordain et al., 2005). I feel that the Control of infectiousdiseases has been a success in my society: In my society there has been reduced number of people with infectious diseases especially cholera. The number of people who are dying from cholerahas reduced. It is really a great health achievement because in the past atleast one person in a week was dying from the infectious disease in my estate. Before the control measure of cholerawas taken, the number had exceeded to two people per week. The health care providers are now educating people on the ways to control the cholera. They are being educated on how treat water before consuming and using for domestic use because cholera is mostly associated with dirty water. They have also been educated on proper sanitation to prevent the disease.The number of the infected people has now reduced. For example in my location, there were atleast three people dying and around seven being infected with the disease per three days. That was three years ago. Today I have heard few cases of people on with the disease. Recently the number of people dying in Africa due to cholerawas 1000 per week. That was around three years ago.Today the number has reduced to 30 people per week (Novick et al., 2005). One peer responded on the issue of immunization and he said that he feels that immunization has helped in prevention of infectious diseases especially measles. He says that there have been numerous reports on measles outbreaks in the US just a few days ago. He says “. The news has quite an impact on me since the headlines indicate that this outbreak originated from the Philippines carried on to the U.S. by travelers. I lived there till I was 21 years old and saw the devastating and frustrating effects of measles to both kids and parents. There are many government funded centers that offer all available pediatric immunizations as well as for adults who cannot afford to pay for the vaccines. The only thing necessary to do is to go to these centers and bring their kids or self. Unfortunately, some people’s beliefs do not support the benefits of immunizations. Personally, I believe Philippines is quite a traditional, religious and conservative country. Sadly, sometimes, these combinations hinder some of the good things such as benefits of immunization” (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2014). He continues to say that the problem is not exclusive in the Philippines but it also remarkable in other countries. He says that that is now evident in US and is reflected by the number of people infected without immunizations. He proceeds to say that according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2014), “Most of the 58 patients were either unvaccinated (25 [43%]) or had no vaccination documentation available (18 [31%])”. He also said that because of the successful implementation of immunization against measles by the public health agencies, measles had once been considered eliminated in the United States. He finalizes by saying, “It is worrying for me to see it come back. Hopefully, people who object to immunizations find a way to accept these kinds of measures.”
References
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2014, April). Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. Retrieved
Cordain, L., Eaton, S. B., Sebastian, A., Mann, N., Lindeberg, S., Watkins, B. A., … & Brand-Miller, J. (2005). Origins and evolution of the Western diet: health implications for the 21st century. The American journal of clinical nutrition, 81(2), 341-354.
Novick, L. F., & Mays, G. P. (Eds.). (2005). Public health administration: principles for population-based management. Jones & Bartlett Learning.