Introduction to Public Health

• Health is a comprehensive state of physical, mental and social well-being, beyond the absence of disease, as defined by WHO in 1948.
• Health involves the extent an individual or group can achieve aspirations, satisfy needs, and adapt to their environment.
• Health is a resource and a positive concept, emphasizing social, personal and physical capabilities, as defined by WHO in 1984.

Public Health vs Medicine

• Public health focuses on entire populations, while medicine focuses on individuals.
• Public health intervention involves assessment, policy development, and assurance, while medicine involves medical treatment.
• The process in public health is system management, whereas in medicine, it is patient management.
• The desired outcome of public health is a healthy community, while in medicine, it is healing.

Public Health Defined

• Public health refers to all organized public, private, or community measures to prevent disease, promote health, and prolong life for the entire population
• Public health activities aim to ensure healthy conditions for entire populations, not individual patients or diseases.
• Public health is concerned with the entire health system, not only the eradication of specific diseases.
• Public health is interdisciplinary, including knowledge, skills, and approaches from various disciplines and professions.
• Public health professionals work with populations to identify disease and disability causes and implement interventions.
• Public health systems include all public, private, and voluntary entities delivering essential public health services within a jurisdiction.
• The actors in public health systems vary by context, reflecting its interdisciplinary nature.
• Public health work involves people and organizations across research, policymaking, community health education, and epidemics.
• Epidemiologists use quantitative (statistics) and qualitative data (interviews and focus groups) to study disease patterns and causes.
• Epidemiological analyses are used to form public health policy and programming at all system levels.

Public Health Functions

• Public health includes assessing and monitoring the health of at-risk communities and populations to identify health problems and priorities.
• Public health includes formulating public policies to solve identified local and national health problems and priorities.
• Public health assures all populations have access to appropriate, cost-effective care, including health promotion and disease prevention.

Global Health Defined

• Global health is an interdisciplinary field that seeks to improve the health and well-being of people worldwide, especially in developing countries and marginalized populations.
• Global health includes a broad range of issues related to health and development, such as infectious and noncommunicable diseases, maternal, child, and mental health, and access to healthcare.
• Global health takes a holistic approach, recognizing that health is shaped by social, economic, political, and biological factors.
• Global health acknowledges that health problems globally can have far-reaching effects, requiring international collaboration.
• Global health addresses health issues transcending national boundaries, requiring global action.
• Global health aims for worldwide health improvement, reducing disparities and protecting against global threats, and prioritizes health and equity.

Public Health vs Global Health

• Public health focuses on populations within a specific geographic area. Global health addresses issues that transcend national boundaries, affecting people worldwide.
• Public health interventions address specific health problems within a community. Global health aims to address broader health and development issues affecting multiple populations.
• Public health priorities are driven by local or national health needs. Global health priorities are shaped by the needs of developing countries and marginalized populations.
• Public health partnerships involve local health authorities and community organizations, which global health partnerships involve international organizations, governments, and NGOs.
• Public health interventions are funded through local or national health budgets, while global health interventions rely on international aid and development assistance.

Global Health Issues and Solutions

• Pressing global health issues include emerging infectious diseases like COVID-19, re-emerging infectious diseases like Ebola, tuberculosis, malaria, and HIV.
• Also included are malnutrition globally, including under- and overnutrition and an increase in diabetes and heart disease globally.
• Global health solutions include polio eradication, avian influenza containment, tobacco control, and preventing antibiotic resistance.
• Solutions also consist of expanding access to vaccines and essential medicines.