Facts about Public Health

• The focus of a public health intervention is to prevent and manage diseases, injuries and other health conditions through surveillance of cases and the promotion of healthy behaviors, communities and environments.


• Public health plays an important role in disease prevention efforts in both the developing world and in developed countries, through local health systems and non-governmental organizations. 


• In some ways, public health is a modern concept of human development in science , although it has roots in antiquity. From the beginnings of human civilization, it was recognized that polluted water and lack of proper waste disposal spread communicable diseases (theory of miasma). 


-www.wikipedia.org/public_health




• Public health is the science and art of protecting and improving the health of communities through education, promotion of healthy lifestyles and research for disease and injury preventions. 


• Public health helps improve the health and well being of people in local communities around the globe. 


• Public health works to prevent health problems before the occur. 


-www.whatispublichealth.org




• Influenza season is here and now is the best time to get your seasonal flu vaccine. Immunity from flu vaccination declines over time. This is one reason why it is recommended that everyone, six months of age and older, get a seasonal flu vaccine.


• The influenza vaccine is recommended for everyone, except infants under six months of age. It is especially important that certain groups be vaccinated because they are either at greater risk of developing complications from the flu or because they live with or care for other who are at greater risk of developing complications. 


• Public Health offers free flu vaccines throughout the county for individuals without health insurance or another source of health care. 


-http://publichealth.lacounty.gov/




• Health standards in Colombia have improved greatly since the 1980s. A 1993 reform transformed the structure of public health-care funding by shifting the burden of subsidy from providers to users. 


• In 2002 Colombia had 58,761 physicians, 23,950 nurses, and 33,951 dentists; these numbers equated to 1.35 physicians, 0.55 nurses, and 0.78 dentists per 1,000 people, respectively. In 2005 Colombia was reported to have only 1.1 physicians per 1,000 people, as compared with a Latin American average of 1.5.


• Urban and rural residents experienced significant differences in access to health care. The coverage in the three largest cities -- Bogotá, Medellín, and Cali -- was almost 95 percent. At the rural level, the best services were delivered by the departments in the coffee-growing areas. At the bottom of the scale -- in terms of quality and coverage -- were the rural areas in the non-Andean regions as well as the marginal neighborhoods in medium-sized and small cities.


-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_care_in_Colombia




• The Africa Public Health Alliance and 15%+ Campaign is a non-profit organization promoting health development and financing across Africa.


• The APHA & 15%+ Campaign promotes these issues including the Health Related Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), through policy work, advocacy, empirical research, community mobilization and capacity building in partnership with civil society, parliamentarians, development partners, relevant government ministries, departments and agencies especially health and other stakeholders at the Continental, sub-regional and country levels in Africa and beyond.


• The APHA & 15%+ Campaign is also strengthening its existing links with African Health Worker professional associations and trade unions to both ensure their input to regional and country policy and advocacy work, and also build civil society solidarity for their issues.


-www.who.org