Sergio Conti

Columbia Southern University

Problem Solving in Public Health (PUH 6305)

Professor Burress, Landrus

Essay Unit I

Healthy People 2020

Health is defined by WHO as a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being

and not just the absence of the disease.

Epidemiology is the science that studies the distribution and determinants of events in

particular diseases. It is the investigation of the methods that should be used to prevent

and control diseases to prevent epidemics.

Throughout the history of humanity, there have been viruses and bacteria that in some

cases have decimated populations such as the Black Plague in the 14th century and

were transmitted by fleas carried by rodents. In the case of this disease, it is believed

that the infection began in Central Asia and traveled to Italian cities with great

commercial activities such as Geneva and from there was spread to all of Europe. The

Black Plague wiped out a third of Europe's population and 45 to 60 million people

worldwide.

Another of the great epidemics that affected humanity in the past was the flu epidemic

that began in Spain in 1918. Unlike other epidemics of flu that affected more children

and the elderly, at this time the strain of the virus attacked mostly young people. More

than 50 million people were killed by this virus, three times more than those who had

died in World War I. (Humphries MO,2014)

In 1979 an initiative created by the US Department of Health to improve the health of

the country and its well-being was the project called Healthy People. It was an

organization that included public health experts at the national, state and local levels,
government officials, individuals and many organizations interested in studying the

causes of health problems presented by the country's population and the main goal was

to implement programs that can help the living conditions of the US citizens that they

can live longer and with a better quality of life.

In the year 2000, it was decided that every 10 years the past health information would

be updated and new health problems and likely solutions to these problems will be

included for the next 10 years. Then we had the Healthy People 2010 and Healthy

People 2020 projects.

Since the beginning of modern epidemiology with the system used by John Snow who

was able to localize the origin of a cholera epidemic that had occurred in London in the

year 1854, we learned a lot about drinking water control and how to improve the quality

of the Ire.

The discovery of vaccines in 1796 by the English physician Edward Jenner allowed

containing smallpox epidemics like the one tidying up the indigenous population of

America with the arrival of the European conquerors. In 1980 WHO decrees that

smallpox on the face of the earth had been eradicated after the appearance of the last

case in 1977.

Now the health system was able to control some of the infectious diseases through

vaccines and antibiotics that were discovered by Alexander Fleming who in1928 was

able to synthesize penicillin G.

But since the beginning of the New Millennium, the country has begun to suffer from

other epidemics, some of the most important are:

1.-Deaths from lung cancer due to the high rates of smoking.

2. - Obesity, in the US almost 40% of adults and 19% of young people are obese

according to information provided by the National Center for Statistics in October 2017.

In addition to having the highest rate of obesity that has been seen in the country, there

are several diseases related to obesity such as Diabetes type 2 that is affecting more 29

million citizens or cardiovascular diseases that according to the American Heart

Association is affecting 92.1 million Americans with an annual mortality of 801,000

deaths each year or 2200 per day.

There are other health hazards affecting Americans include: sexual transmitted

diseases, teenage pregnancies, alcoholism and the use of drugs like marijuana,

cocaine, heroin and the new chemical drugs such as amphetamines or crystal meth.

Opium abuse caused the deaths of 68,557 people, 47590 suffered by opium overdose

and 31897 involved synthetic opioids such as fentanyl and tramadol in 2018.( MINHEE

C,2019)

Of course, after 9/11 where buildings in the city of New York were destroyed by aircraft

piloted by terrorists, it has created a great fear of such attacks with bombs or with

weapons that would use bioterrorists like the Anthrax.

In 2002, a coronavirus epidemic that began in China in the city of Canton killed 18.2%

of those infected. Then in 2011, the Middle East respiratory syndrome infected 2494

people of whom 858 died, a mortality rate of 34.4%.

At the time of writing this essay, a new strain of coronavirus originated in the city of

Wuhan has caused infection of 6,000 people and more than 130 people already died

from the disease.

Healthy People 2020 is a project that is managed by the U.S. Department of Health and

Human Services.

In the section where the Overarching Goals are evaluated, we can see that they want

the people of this country to live more with a high quality of life, free of preventable

diseases, disability, injury and premature death.

Another goal is to reduce differences in how different U.S. citizens access health

services.

A third goal to achieve a social and physical environment that promotes good health for

all.

And finally promote quality of life, healthy development, and healthy behaviors in all the

stages of the life of US citizens.( Finney Rutten LJ,2019)

References:

Humphries MO. Paths of Infection: The First World War and the Origins of the 1918

Influenza Pandemic. War in History. 2014; 21(1):55-81. doi:

10.1177/0968344513504525

MINHEE C, CALANDRILLO S. The Cure for America’s Opioid Crisis? End the War on

Drugs. Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy. 2019; 42(2):547-623.

http://search.ebscohost.com.libraryresources.columbiasouthern.edu/login.aspx?

direct=true&db=tsh&AN=136471227&site=eds-live&scope=site. Accessed January 29,

2020.

Finney Rutten LJ, Blake KD, Greenberg-Worisek AJ, Allen SV, Moser RP, Hesse BW.

Online Health Information Seeking Among US Adults: Measuring Progress toward a

Healthy People 2020 Objective. Public Health Reports. 2019; 134(6):617-625.

doi:10.1177/0033354919874074.