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Negative impact of mandatory immunization
Eradication of smallpox history
Eradication of smallpox history
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1. The most important distinction between medical care and public health is public health comes down to prevention and promotion. Medical care comes down to the treatment after the fact. Medical care deals with the individual patient, while public health takes the community and populations into consideration. Public health is much broader of a concept when it comes to comparing it with medical care. Medical care works with the illness once it occurs while public health prevent illness before it even happens through educational programs, policy changes, and research. According to cdcfoundation.org, “a large part of public health is promoting healthcare equality, quality, and accessibility.” Treatment is also a big component to the distinction of medical care and public health. Medical care treatment is from doctors, nurses, etc.; “treatment” in terms of public health is through legislation, laws, and agencies like the Cdc. Public health treats the community through the promotion of healthy lifestyles. Another big distinction comes from the involvement of politics. Public health has correlations to politics. This is because to have prevention …show more content…
Many of these questions I had prior knowledge from other courses and watching the new or reading the newspaper. However, one thing I learned that I didn’t know before was small pox was completely eradicated. By 1958, small box had killed 2 million people each year worldwide. By the 1970s, it had been eradicated through the efforts of public health. Being able to say a disease was eradicated was a large achievement. Through process of elimination, I was able to decide it was not hepatitis because you still hear about this illness, and there are still vaccinations for people to protect themselves from it. I knew it was not leukemia because people are still suffering from this; how I wish it were leukemia that was eradicated. This process left me with heliobacter pylori and smallpox. From there I had a fifty- fifty
“Future nations will know by history only that the loathsome smallpox has existed and by you extirpated”. This quote comes from Thomas Jefferson to Edward Jenner, he founder of the smallpox vaccine. It would only be 100 years later that Jefferson would see his dream fulfilled, but not without struggle. In House on Fire, author William H. Foege shares his first hand view of the lengths that society needed to go through to rid the world of the disease that had plagued it for so long. The story of the fight against smallpox extends long before our efforts for global eradication and is a representation of how society deals with widespread disease. House on
Before discussing how disease has shaped history and altered cultures, it is important to understand how they themselves have developed and changed throughout history. Disease, in the broadest definition of the word, has been present since the beginning of humanity. Even ...
Because of the occurrence of the Black Death, advancements in medicine were made that helped us to be where we are today in the medical field. The Black Death first began...
Eradication is the concept that a disease is entirely eliminated in a region. (Carter n.d.) Only one infectious disease to date, smallpox, has been categorized as eradicated worldwide (CDC 2010). How did this eradication occur? From 1958 to 1965 all fifty states enacted legislation to mandate school age children receive the small pox vaccine (College of Philadelphia). Consequently, by 1971, no small pox cases had been reported in the United States for 20 years. The last known smallpox case in the world was in Somalia in 1977 (CDC 2010). Even though small pox is the only listed eradicated disease, the Carter Foundation has listed six other diseases as having the potential to be eradicated: lymphatic filariasis (Elephantiasis), polio, measles, mumps, rubella, and pork tapeworm. In addition to these previous listed diseases are to date the following diseases which are considered preventable by vaccination: chicken pox, diphtheria, Haemohphilus Influenza type B, Hepatitis A and B, HPV, Influenza, Measles, Meningococcal Disease, Mumps, Pertusis, Pneumonia, Polio, Rotavirus, Rubella, Shingles, Smallpox, Tetanus, Yellow Fever, and STDs (Carter n.d.).
Public concerns have a negative effect on the care sector causing a lack of trust. Bad press leads to the public feeling that all care establishments operate in a neglectful way. Good practice is rarely recognised in the media. Through public concern during this time, people’s concerns lead to many investigations and changes, which lead to Winterbourne being closed
Healthcare can then be described as an activity or act geared to maintain health. This could be through provision of medical services or any other services that aims at maintaining good health. Healthcare is not necessarily provided when a person becomes sick or loses health but is progressive and should always be provided as a preventive measure. Healthcare system is the organization of people, institutions, and resources to deliver health care services to meet the health needs of the targeted populations. Therefore, we can say that these are systems put in place to meet healthcare needs of a particular population. There are several systems worldwide and in this case, we are going to focus on the US Health care system.
The term “public/community health” often brings to mind sparkling clear clean water and fresh clean air. The reason for that mental image is that both are required in order for one to have good public/community health. In actuality, the term “Public Health” has been defined as “the protection and improvement of the health of the public through community action, primarily by governmental agencies” (Public Health, 2016). However, public health includes any and all actions taken to maintain and improve the general health of a community. Government health programs provide most of the public health services. In addition, many voluntary health agencies receive contributions to battle specific diseases, such as HIV and cancer. These agencies not only provide medical services, they campaign for health legislation, and make important contributions to health education. In the United States, the Public Health Service administers the government’s public health programs. State and local health departments also provide a wide range of
diseases in the world, and it was declared eradicated in 1980 (Smallpox). This and all the other
For approximately three-thousand years, smallpox has ravaged and plagued the four corners of the globe. In fact, in the 17 th and 18 th centuries, it was claimed to be the most infectious disease in the West, with an astounding 90% mortality rate in America. It wasn't until 1796, with English surgeon Edward Jenner's smallpox vaccination, that the world saw relief from this devastating virus. However, even with this inoculation in use, the world continued to witness death from both the virus and the vaccine. In the year 1966, it was estimated that 10-15 million infected citizens world wide had passed away from smallpox that year alone ( “History” 12). As a result of these devastating numbers, in the following year, 1967, the World Health Organization (W.H.O.) created a program to eradicate the smallpox virus. Ten years later, in 1977, the estimated 10-15 million cases had dwindled down to one; a man in Somalia. Three years later, W.H.O. officially announced that smallpox had been eradicated, leaving the only remaining virus cultures stored and guarded in laboratories in Russia and the United States. Inoculations ceased, smallpox epidemics were non-existent, and the virus was no longer a concern. In order to ensure complete eradication of this deadly virus, the W.H.O. insisted that the remaining smallpox cultures be destroyed by 1999 ( “Smallpox Eradication” 2). However, despite the W.H.O.'s recommendation, the remaining cultures continue to be contained and protected to this day, five years after the suggested date of elimination.
Illness has been a major part of humankind’s lives almost since the beginning of time. Throughout history, illnesses caused fatal epidemics that caused deaths between young and old, and brought fear upon all for the absence of a cure. Having an illness throughout most of history was considered an inevitable death sentence, as the majority of causes of death (Offit). Vaccinations have been experimented in China and Turkey in the 15th century, with methods such as inhaling or rubbing grounded up smallpox scabs against open cuts (Clem). Then in 1700s, the first form of modern vaccination was invented by Edward Jenner with the cowpox virus acting against smallpox, giving immunity against it (Offit).
In the 1950s, a majority of the people were concerned about the things circulating in their everyday lives that they could not see: germs. These fragments of bacteria were intimidating and seemed impossible to stop. “The two most feared germs are bacteria (one-celled microorganisms) and viruses (ultramicroscopic or submicroscopic agents). During the decade, researchers made great strides in the understanding and control of these tiny enemies. In 1947, sixty viruses were thought to contribute to human disease; by 1959, seventy-six new ones had been identified.” (encyclopedia 3). As time went on, no one knew how to describe the fear they had acquired from the virus, as well as the sickness they had experienced.
In some way, public health is seen as a modern philosophical and ideological perspective based on ‘equity’ and aimed to determine inequitable in society. It seen as a ‘science’ and ‘art’ in the sense that it deals with the cause of disease, treatment of illness as well as it involves laboratory experiments, intervention and promoting of health of the population. Winslow (1920, p. 23) defined public health as ‘the science and art of preventing disease, prolonging life and promoting physical health and efficiency through organised community efforts for the sanitation of the environment, the control community infections, the education of the individual in principles of personal hygiene, the organisation of medical and nursing service for early diagnosis and preventive treatment of disease, and the development of social machinery which will ensure to every individual in the community a standard of living adequate for the maintenance of health. On the other hand, it is ‘the science and art of preventing disease, prolonging life and promoting health through organised effort of society’ (Acheson, 1998; in Cowley S, 2002, p. 261).
In the 1960s, doctors in the United States predicted that infectious diseases were in decline. US surgeon Dr. William H. Stewart told the nation that it had already seen most of the frontiers in the field of contagious disease. Epidemiology seemed destined to become a scientific backwater (Karlen 1995, 3). Although people thought that this particular field was gradually dying, it wasn’t. A lot more of it was destined to come. By the late 1980s, it became clear that people’s initial belief of infectious diseases declining needed to be qualified, as a host of new diseases emerged to infect human beings (Smallman & Brown, 2011).With the current trends, the epidemics and pandemics we have faced have created a very chaotic and unreliable future for mankind. As of today, it has really been difficult to prevent global epidemics and pandemics. Although the cases may be different from one state to another, the challenges we all face are all interconnected in this globalized world.
Public Health is the most important aspect of medicine. My studies in Public Health will go a very long way to help me grasp the proper concepts and tools needed to work with the government to bring sustainable solutions to health care problems faced by various communities today. Public Health issues touch almost every family in the USA today. I know that if the health sector was better funded, better equipped, and better managed, with clear and effective policies, this kind of suffering could been avoided. I want to go into public health because I believe strongly that I can contribute not only to my fellow Americans, but also to people all over the world. I anticipate that through proper planning, interventions and implementation of effective policies, one will be able to bring about much-needed change through my work with an NGO or non-profit affiliated with the UN.
Public Health is the science of preventing disease and promoting health through many different ideas and functions by informing society and different community-based organizations. The idea behind Public Health is to protect and serve; it helps improve the lives of countless individuals through promoting a healthier lifestyle, education, research, prevention, detection, and response management. From the beginning, the idea of Public Health has become a stepping-stone that is essential to the longevity of humans and the environment. As society progresses and new advents are created or modified, Public Health