Public Heath Overview

A lecture by Dr. Umair Waqas

Public Health Definition

“Public health is the science and art of preventing disease, prolonging life and
promoting physical health and efficiency through organized community efforts for
the sanitation of the environment, the control of community infections, the
education of the individual in principles of personal hygiene, the organization of
medical and nursing service for the 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’. (Winslow, 1920)
Sir Donald Acheson in 1988 defined it as: ‘the science and art of preventing
disease, prolonging life and promoting, protecting and improving health through
the organized efforts of society”

Public Health defined by WHO

Public health is considered to be about the health of people or communities, as

opposed to individual health - it is everyone's responsibility
• The concept of public health is not unique and has changed over the years due to
changes in the health status of the population and the determining situations of
health. This definition of public health is directly linked to the wider definition of
health, found in the preamble of the constitution of the World Health Organization
(1948), where health is referred to as "a state of complete physical, mental and
social well-being and not merely the absence of disease."
Key Terms
clinical care: prevention, treatment, and management of illness and the
preservation of mental and physical well-being through the services offered by
medical and allied health professions; also known as health care.

determinant: factor that contributes to the generation of a trait

epidemic or outbreak: occurrence in a community or region of cases of an illness,

specific health-related behavior, or other health-related event clearly in excess of
normal expectancy. Both terms are used interchangeably; however, epidemic
usually refers to a larger geographic distribution of illness or health-related events.

Endemic and Pandemic: Endemic is a disease that exists permanently in particular

region or areas. When epidemic spreads throughout the world, it is called as
pandemic.

health outcome: result of a medical condition that directly affects the length or
quality of a person’s life.

Public Health Functions (I)

Surveillance, analysis and evaluation of population’s health status

• Monitor health status to identify population or community health problems
• Diagnose and investigate health problems and health hazards in the community
• Monitor environmental and health status to identify and solve community
environmental health problems
• Diagnose and investigate environmental health problems and health hazards in
the community
• Act as quickly as possible with efficacy in solving and improving these problems

Public Health Functions (II)

Develop policies and plans that support individual and community health efforts
Once the health problem is identified, public health seeks the best interventions
and strategies to solve the public health problem and identify health and/or social
actors or agents that can be carried out in the best way possible

Public Health Functions (III)

• Health Promotion
This is a public health function that tries to promote the health of the population,
educating in health from the different health, education and mass media facilities

Public Health Functions (IV)

• Disease Prevention
There are two strategies to address diseases prevention,
the high-risk approach and the population approach
• High risk approach the high-risk approach is aimed at individuals particularly
predisposed to an illness and an individual prevention manner is offered to them
• Population approach the population approach attempt to control the factors of
the population as a whole without focusing on a specific collective matter

• Disease Prevention
• There are three levels of prevention
• Primary Prevention: to intervene before a disease appears
• Secondary Prevention: to intervene in pre-symptomatic phases
• Tertiary Prevention: to intervene when the individual is already ill. Try to mitigate
the effects of disease

Public Health Functions (V)

• To develop effective programs and health facilities to protect health
The development and implementation of programs that promote health
improvement of the population as a whole, with the condition that they are based
on efficacy scientific evidence based and that they help to increase the
population’s quality of life