Public

Week Five

Overview

Public health has learned and grown from previous experiences with its fight against disease, but the future of public health is uncertain. New areas of concern include emergency preparedness and as a result terrorism and bioterrorism. Globally, public health continues to fight old threats, such as tuberculosis, and newer threats such as Ebola. Implementing strategies learned from past public health campaigns will be paramount in treating disease.

What you will cover

1. Strategies for Health Promotion

a. Describe lessons learned.

1) Avoiding implementation before research

a) Swine flu vaccinations, 1976

(1) Unexpected number of Guillain-Barre syndrome cases

(2) Did not establish person-to-person spread and ease of transmission before vaccination campaign

b) Smallpox vaccine after 9/11

(1) Many side effects of vaccine

(2) Smallpox vaccine known to cause side effects, including life threatening heart issues

(3) Campaign ended

2) Large scale system to detect side effects of interventions

a) Dalkon shield, IUD

b) Estrogen therapy trials (increase breast cancer and heart attacks)

3) Elimination of disease is rare

a) Certain conditions must be present

b) Elimination campaigns when these conditions not present can do more harm

b. Identify future trends in public health.

1) Disease detectives

2) Not limited to communicable diseases

a) Effect of environmental toxins

b) Effect of food

c) Monthly investigations conducted in U.S.

3) Terrorism and bioterrorism

a) National Incident Management System and Department of Homeland Security

(1) Communication system

(2) Colors reflect response level

4) Global Health issues

a) Control verses elimination

b) Effect of demographic changes

(1) Aging

(2) Mobility of communities and globalization in U.S.

c) Effect of environmental change

(1) Climate change

(2) Food safety

d) System thinking: understanding how things influence one another; in health care, an example would be how all countries struggle with outbreaks such as swine flu

e) Educated citizens

f) IOM

g) Globalization

(1) Diseases

(2) Managing outbreaks

(3) Collaboration

(a) World Health Organization

(b) United Nations