My first experience of public health was in school. We had a course called veterinary public health and during the lecture, our lecturer defined what public health was. It was however a very long and cumbersome definition that I had to re-read it every time it was time to write an exam or a test in that course.
To me public health entails safety measures taken to ensure the health of the public is safe and protected. This could involve measures taken by medical personnel to prevent outbreak of a disease, measures taken by community members to protect themselves from being infected with a disease, treatment regimens, advocacy, policy making among others.
According to Wikipedia, Public health is defined as “the science and art of preventing disease, prolonging life and promoting health through the organized efforts and informed choices of society, organizations, public and private, communities and individuals”. The public can be as small as a handful of people or as large as a village or an entire city; in the case of a pandemic it may encompass several continents.
The purpose of a public health intervention is to prevent and reduce the spread of diseases, injuries and other health conditions. The overall goal is to improve the health of populations and increase life expectancy.
Understanding what public health is all about, helps us as a community and the world at large to put in place measures to protect ourselves. There are various arising issues in our world today of public health concern such as emerging and re-emerging zoonotic diseases, Antimicrobial resistance, climate change, food safety, food insecurity to mention but a few. These issues need our collective efforts as well as interdisciplinary collaborations for such issues to become something of the past. Thank you for reading and I hope you now have a better understanding of what public health means.
Public health care Space 