Social and Economic Concerns in Public Health - Essay Example

Social and Economic Concerns in Public Health Public health is a multifaceted discipline, which fundamentally focuses on ways of increasing human expectancy via improved health (Cromley and McLafferty 5). This is done through a raft of measures, which include identifying health risks that threaten a community, and identifying ways to deal with risks. Dealing with health predicaments that afflicts the community provides a way of reducing cost incurred in treating as threats are identified earlier and proactive measures undertaken to prevent the manifestation of the health threats in the community.

Scholars in this field have studied and expounded public health as a discipline beyond the traditions paradigms ((Pfizer Global Pharmaceuticals 25). Presently, the analysis of public health brings into play social and economic concerns, which were previously overlooked. Despite the expanded focus of this discipline, it has however not shifted its focus, which is the well-being of the community. Public health integrates science and art to establish methodical ways of ensuring the populations is healthy.

The systematic ways may be reactive or proactive depending on the health risk or predicament that is being addressed. Modern public health undertakings entail education, which provides a platform upon which the masses and respective communities may be enlightened on how to live in a healthy way. Over the last century, public health has evolved and developed massively. One of the key milestones achieved is the increase in life expectancy. The increase in life expectancy is an indication of the improvement in the public health’s ability to address ailments, which often causes death.

Some the key statistics that reflect the progressed realized include infant mortality, which denotes death of children at birth or in their early years (Pfizer Global Pharmaceuticals 5). Over the last one hundred years, public health has also dealt blows to cancerous ailments such as lung cancer, which caused numerous deaths in the 1960s and 1970s. However, when delving into the milestone achieved, it is vital to look at food safety and vaccination, which are proactive ways of enhancing health in communities.

Vaccination has helped deal with ailments such as polio on a global scale. Enhanced food safety has also resulted in reduced cases of ailments such as food poisoning, typhoid, and the spread of harmful pathogens that may trigger other ailments. The emergent of a global aspect in public health has necessitated opening up paradigms through which scholars study public health. Technology has revolutionised public health due to the ease of communication, availability of data on public health and emergence of new ways to treat patients.

Such developments have contributed to the emergence of dynamic discipline. Technology has played a vital role in medical research and surgery. It has enabled the development of safer medication and effective ways of diagnosing and treating patients (Fleming and Parker 120). In light of those changes, which have resulted in the emergence of a multifaceted discipline after a century, it is only logical to note that the definition of public should be significantly different to accommodate the new dynamics.

In my area of specialization, microbial world, which view the earth as an unexplored biological planet, developments have enabled research on the uncultured majority. Research in this area has altered our views on microbial ecology, and the role it can play in improving public health. Understating how organisms such as bacteria and viruses work will contribute in the creation of a body of knowledge, which will help, treat some of the ailments that results from some of the pathogens under study in the microbial world (Aron and Patz 34).

The work I do is an indicator of how other disciplines such as biology and research contribute to the improvements in public health. Biology and research provide public health with the tools to improve the population’s health.Works CitedAron, Joan and Patz, Jonathan. Ecosystem Change and Public Health: A Global Perspective. Baltimore, MA: JHU Publishing, 2001. Print.Cromley, Ellen and McLafferty Sara. GIS and Public Health, Second Edition. New York, NY: Guilford Publishing, 2012. Print.Fleming, Mary and Parker, Elizabeth, Introduction to Public Health.

Australia: Elsevier Publishing. 2009. Print.Pfizer Global Pharmaceuticals. Milestones in Public Health. New York, NY: Pfizer Inc, 2006. Print.