Public Health In The 20th Century
Public health is a science that works to protect and improve the health of individuals and communities in all aspects of their lives. Just by looking at the definition, it becomes evident why one may easily confuse it with medical care. However, this is not the case. The most important distinction between medical care, which includes doctors and nurses, and public health is approach. Doctors and nurses typically see a patient once he or she is already sick; therefore, their main goal is to treat the patient. In contrast, public health agencies and professionals aim to prevent the onset and recurrence of illnesses in populations through education, administration services, and funding and conducting research (“What is public health”, 2016). It’s
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Of their ten great achievements of the century, control of infectious diseases resonates with me the most. There’s a very high chance that I would not be alive today, because I may have not made it past infancy. Sanitation and hygiene, vaccination, and antimicrobial medicine all fall under the category of control of infectious diseases. This category caught my attention because I am a first generation American; both of my parents are from India. I took my first trip there a little over two years ago and realized that it was drastically underdeveloped when compared to the United States. In the village I stayed in, the canals outside of houses smelt of feces, roadside vendors served food on unwashed plates, and in many houses soap was a commodity-- there weren’t really state regulated or enforced sanitation or hygiene guidelines which is horrible considering the diseases and outbreaks that can occur from microorganisms. Practices and health measures such as proper sewage and waste disposal, vaccinating children, treating water, food safety, and the creation of penicillin have saved more lives than imaginable and ensured a better quality of life for us in the twenty-first century. Public health made headway in the twentieth century, but it’s now important for it to keep advancing into the twenty-first century by achieving globalization of practices in all areas, including control of infectious diseases (“Ten great public health achievements”,
Of their ten great achievements of the century, control of infectious diseases resonates with me the most. There’s a very high chance that I would not be alive today, because I may have not made it past infancy. Sanitation and hygiene, vaccination, and antimicrobial medicine all fall under the category of control of infectious diseases. This category caught my attention because I am a first generation American; both of my parents are from India. I took my first trip there a little over two years ago and realized that it was drastically underdeveloped when compared to the United States. In the village I stayed in, the canals outside of houses smelt of feces, roadside vendors served food on unwashed plates, and in many houses soap was a commodity-- there weren’t really state regulated or enforced sanitation or hygiene guidelines which is horrible considering the diseases and outbreaks that can occur from microorganisms. Practices and health measures such as proper sewage and waste disposal, vaccinating children, treating water, food safety, and the creation of penicillin have saved more lives than imaginable and ensured a better quality of life for us in the twenty-first century. Public health made headway in the twentieth century, but it’s now important for it to keep advancing into the twenty-first century by achieving globalization of practices in all areas, including control of infectious diseases (“Ten great public health achievements”,