COMMUNITY AND PUBLIC HEALTH

• Health is derived from hal, which means "hale, sound, whole"


  Health: a dynamic state or condition of the human organisms that is multidimensional in nature, a resource of living, and results from a person's interactions with and adaptations to his or her environment.
• The World Health Organization (WHO) defines health as “a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.”
• Health status is determined by the interaction of five domains:

  • Gestational endowments
  • Social circumstances
  • Environmental conditions
  • Behavioral choices
  • Medical care
• Com means together in Latin


  Munis means to endow or to have exchange of services in Etcruscan.
• A community is a group of people who form relationships over time by interacting regularly around experiences.
• Public health: most inclusive
• Public health system: the organizational mechanisms of those activities undertaken within the formal structure of government and the associated efforts of private and voluntary organizations and individuals.
• Community health: the health status of a defined group of people and the actions and conditions to promote, protect, and preserve their health.
• Population health: the health outcomes of a group of individuals including the distribution of such outcomes within the group.
• Global health: describes health problems, issues, and concerns that transcend national boundaries
• Personal health: Individual actions and decision-making that affect the health of an individual or their immediate family
• Community and Public Health: Activities that are aimed at protecting or improving the health of a population or community.
• Factors that affect the health of a community

  • Physical Factors
  • Social and cultural factors
  • Community organizing
  • Individual behaviors
• Geography can be directly influenced by its altitude, latitude, and climate.
• In tropical countries, parasitic and infectious diseases are leading community health problems
• Built environment refers to the “design, construction, management, and the land use of human-made surroundings as an interrelated whole, as well as their relationship to human activities over time.
• Community size: The larger the community, the greater its range of health problems and the  greater its number of health resources.
• Environmental problems are often more severe in densely populated areas.
• Social and cultural factors: Arises from the interaction of individuals or groups within the community.
• Herd immunity: the resistance of a population to the spread of an infectious agent based on the immunity of a high proportion of individuals
• Public health is the sum of all governmental efforts to promote, protect, and preserve the people's health
• Prior to 200 BCE - Sumerian clay tablet
• Circa 1900 BCE - Code of Hammurabi
• Circa 1500 BCE - Book of Leviticus
• Spiritual era of public health a time during the Middle Ages when the causation of communicable disease was linked to spiritual forces.
• Middle Ages/Dark Ages: little progress in public or community health
• Deadliest epidemics were from plague (Black Death) occurred in 543 CE and 1358 CE
• 1492 CE: Syphilis epidemic was the last epidemic
• Renaissance and exploration - Renewed and interest in causes and cures of diseases
• Renaissance and exploration - Diseases caused by environmental and not spiritual factors
• John Graunt published the Observations on the Bills of Mortality
• 18th century - Period of Industrial growth and poor sanitary conditions
• 18th century - epidemics of cholera, yellow fever, and smallpox
• 1793 - Yellow fever epidemic in Philadelphia
• 1798 - Marine Hospital Service was formed
• 1796 - Dr. Edward Jenner successfully demonstrated smallpox vaccination
• 19th century - Beginning of the modern era of public health
• Miasma theory - predominant theory of contagious diseases which postulated vapors or bad smell were the source of many diseases
• Louis Pasteur - proposed germ theory
• Robert Koch - developed the criteria for identifying bacteria and proved that microbes cause disease.