"The Nation has lost sight of its public health goals and has allowed the system of public health to fall into 'disarray'," from The Future of Public Health. This startling book contains proposals for ensuring that public health service programs are efficient and effective enough to deal not only with the topics of today, but also with those of tomorrow. In addition, the authors make recommendations for core functions in public health assessment, policy development, and service assurances, and identify the level of government--federal, state, and local--at which these functions would best be handled.

Policy-makers are increasingly concerned about the impact of climate variability and change on the health of vulnerable populations. Variations and trends in climatic factors and extreme weather events impact many health outcomes, including malaria, heat stress and undernutrition. Climate Information for Public Health Action is based on the premise that climate knowledge and information can help protect the public from climate-sensitive health risks. With a focus on infectious disease, hydro-meteorological disasters and nutrition, the book explores why, when and how data on the historical, current and future (from days to decades) climate can be incorporated into health decision-making. Created as a collaborative effort between climate and health experts, this book targets a broad technical public health community, alongside development practitioners and policy-makers engaged in climate change adaptation. It may also guide climate experts in the development of climate services tailored to health needs. Written in an accessible, informative style, while maintaining the highest technical and scientific standards, it will also be a valuable resource for students and academics studying and working in the emerging field of environment and health. The Open Access version of this book, available at http://www.tandfebooks.com/doi/view/10.4324/9781315115603, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license."

The anthrax incidents following the 9/11 terrorist attacks put the spotlight on the nation's public health agencies, placing it under an unprecedented scrutiny that added new dimensions to the complex issues considered in this report. The Future of the Public's Health in the 21st Century reaffirms the vision of Healthy People 2010, and outlines a systems approach to assuring the nation's health in practice, research, and policy. This approach focuses on joining the unique resources and perspectives of diverse sectors and entities and challenges these groups to work in a concerted, strategic way to promote and protect the public's health. Focusing on diverse partnerships as the framework for public health, the book discusses: The need for a shift from an individual to a population-based approach in practice, research, policy, and community engagement. The status of the governmental public health infrastructure and what needs to be improved, including its interface with the health care delivery system. The roles nongovernment actors, such as academia, business, local communities and the media can play in creating a healthy nation. Providing an accessible analysis, this book will be important to public health policy-makers and practitioners, business and community leaders, health advocates, educators and journalists.

In the United States, some populations suffer from far greater disparities in health than others. Those disparities are caused not only by fundamental differences in health status across segments of the population, but also because of inequities in factors that impact health status, so-called determinants of health. Only part of an individual's health status depends on his or her behavior and choice; community-wide problems like poverty, unemployment, poor education, inadequate housing, poor public transportation, interpersonal violence, and decaying neighborhoods also contribute to health inequities, as well as the historic and ongoing interplay of structures, policies, and norms that shape lives. When these factors are not optimal in a community, it does not mean they are intractable: such inequities can be mitigated by social policies that can shape health in powerful ways. Communities in Action: Pathways to Health Equity seeks to delineate the causes of and the solutions to health inequities in the United States. This report focuses on what communities can do to promote health equity, what actions are needed by the many and varied stakeholders that are part of communities or support them, as well as the root causes and structural barriers that need to be overcome.

Many of the health problems in the developing world can be tackled or prevented through public health measures such as essential health care, improved living conditions, water, sanitation, nutrition, immunization, and the adoption of healthy lifestyles. Public Health is an action guide to improving public/community health, with a particular focus on low-middle income countries. It explains public health approaches to developing effective health services and preventive programmes.This Second Edition contains real examples, illustrations and case histories to bring an important subject to life for the reader. The book covers the essential clinical services and preventive programmes including those for TB, HIV/AIDS, malaria, diarrhoeal diseases and the integrated management of childhood and adult illnesses. Practical methods are given for assessing health needs and working with communities to develop health services, and the development of hospital, health centre, andcommunity health services, particularly mother, neonatal and child health services are explained. Additionally gender, social and economic influences on communities' health are explored.The clear language that is used throughout the book to describe the key public health skills (such as epidemiology, managing medicines, communicable and non communicable disease control, health financing, and implementing health services and programmes), will be accessible and highly valuable to doctors, community nurses, and other health professionals, whether in training or in practice as health officers and mangers of health services and programmes.

GENERAL INTRODUCTION This study of the concept of health is an attempt to combine central ideas in modern philosophy of medicine with certain results from analytical action theory. What emerges from the study is a concept of health based on an action-theoretic foundation. A person's health is characterized as his ability to achieve his vital goals. The general conception is not new. This study has been inspired by a number of scholars, both ancient and modern. The most important influences from the latter have been those of Georges Canguilhem, H. Tristram Engelhardt Jr. , Caroline Whitbeck and Ingmar Pörn. The novel aspect of this book consists of elaborations made to the general conception. First, the action-theoretic platform is analysed in some detail. The nature of the ability involved, as well as the conditions for having that ability, are specified. Second, the vital goals of man are given considerable attention. Some previous attempts to define such vital goals are analysed and criticized. A new characterization is proposed, in which the vital goals are conceptually linked to the notion of happiness. A person's vital goals are such states of affairs as are necessary and together sufficient for his minimal happiness. Third, a number of consequences of this con ception are observed and analysed. One issue which is particularly empha sized is that ofwhether the concept ofhealth is a theoretical or a normative concept.

The New Public Health has established itself as a solid textbook throughout the world. Translated into 7 languages, this work distinguishes itself from other public health textbooks, which are either highly locally oriented or, if international, lack the specificity of local issues relevant to students' understanding of applied public health in their own setting. This 3e provides a unified approach to public health appropriate for all masters' level students and practitioners—specifically for courses in MPH programs, community health and preventive medicine programs, community health education programs, and community health nursing programs, as well as programs for other medical professionals such as pharmacy, physiotherapy, and other public health courses. - Changes in infectious and chronic disease epidemiology including vaccines, health promotion, human resources for health and health technology - Lessons from H1N1, pandemic threats, disease eradication, nutritional health - Trends of health systems and reforms and consequences of current economic crisis for health - Public health law, ethics, scientific d health technology advances and assessment - Global Health environment, Millennium Development Goals and international NGOs