PUBLIC HEALTH

The term Public health came in to general use

around 1840.
Emerged from the need to protect the public
from the spread of communicable diseases
Became a law in England as Public Health Act in
1848 to crystallize the efforts organized by
society to protect, promote and restore the
people’s health.
 DEFINITION OF PUBLIC HEALTH
The science and art of preventing disease,
prolonging life and promoting health
Through organized community efforts for the
sanitation of the environment, the control of
communicable infections, education of personal
hygiene
Organizing the medical and nursing services for
early diagnosis and preventive treatment
Development of social machinery to ensure
adequate standard of living to realize his birth right
of health and longevity.
 PUBLIC HEALTH
• Public health is a combination of scientific
discipline (eg) epidemiology, laboratory sciences,
social sciences, demography and skills and
strategies that are directed to the maintenance
and improvement of the health of the people.
• Has become a social institution created and
maintained by society to do something about the
death rate and sanitary conditions and many
other matters relating to life and death.
 PUBLIC HEALTH
With the adoption of Health for All, Public
health is
The organised application of local, national
and international resources to achieve
“health for all”
Attainment by all people of the world a level
of health that will permit them to lead a
socially and economically productive life.
 COMPREHENSIVE HEALTH CARE
• Comprehensive health care is defined as a
multitude of services rendered to individuals,
families or communities by the agents of health
services or professions, for the purpose of
promoting, maintaining, monitoring or restoring
health.
• Health care includes medical care. Medical care is
a subset of a health care system
• Refers to those personal services that are
provided directly by physicians or rendered as a
result of the physician’s instructions.
 CHARACTERISTICS OF HEALTH CARE
Appropriateness
Comprehensiveness
Adequacy
Availability
Accessibility
Affordability
Feasibility