annotation Ch.1

This chapter is meant to show the definition of “Public Health”. It first gives different regions of Public health; such as, local, state, national and the international level, also known as the World Health Organization (WHO). It Then goes on talking about what different impacts are made from each. The definitions are then given from different periods of time such as when Donald Acheson; the British Chief medical officer, said that public health was “the science and art of preventing disease, prolong life and promoting health through the organized efforts of society”. Just sixteen years later Derek Wanless; a British businessman, gave his definition as “The science and art of preventing disease, prolonging life and promoting health through the organized efforts and informal choice of society, organizations and private, communities and individuals”. The most important part of this chapter is when it starts giving definitions of Public health. The reason for this is because it gives definitions over a period, allowing the reader to see the changes of public health. It shows that in the 18 and 19^th century the focus was on the environment and sanitation. In the end of the 19^th century the focus of public health changed to more germs and bacteriology; which then lead to vaccines and therapies for specific diseases and extra precautions when it came to food and water. Then in the 20^th century the focus changed to diseases than more bacteria. This was trying to prevent disease from occurring from lifestyle choices but in the late 80s the arrival of HIV/AIDS came and the focus grew on both infections disease and chronic diseases. It then goes to try segmenting public health from individual lifestyle, social and culture. The last part of this is critiquing Public health on if its focus is correct, is it part of state and nanny state.

This chapter’s focus is to show how Public health has changed over time and will continually change as time goes on. There are multiple reasons for the many changes. One is that people don’t stay in charge forever and as the head of an organization changes, so will their impact on the community. As shown in the beginning of the paragraph people will give different definitions for public health. The next reason is that public health will react to what the major concerns of health are at that time. Also, shown in the book it changed from bacteria to chronic diseases to now infections and chronic diseases. Now last is the critiquing and there will always be people who are satisfied or believe public health organization aren’t doing the right thing. The reason for this is because public health is a very broad topic and can be seen in many ways. What I will learn from this chapter is that public health will change over time and it is for the best because when one problem is fixed there will always be another. I will also learn that there will always be something people believe is wrong or the incorrect move with public health, but this has taught me you can’t satisfy everyone.