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What are the Leading Public Health Issues?

Mary Elizabeth
Mary Elizabeth
Mary Elizabeth
Mary Elizabeth

Public health is concerned with the overall health of a community and threats to the public’s health. The leading public health issues may seem to change as time passes, but the underlying issues remain largely the same. Some of the continuing important issues are: universal access to health care, public safety in the light of communicable diseases, food safety; stem cell research, and vaccination. The impact of the environment on health and issues of drug and alcohol use are other public health issues.

Universal health care access, sometimes referred to broadly as “health care reform” has been one of a number of ongoing public health issues. Governments struggles to find a means of funding such a program. Another aspect of the issue is trying to achieve bi-partisan agreement on just what the program should include and whether individuals should be required by a mandate to purchase health insurance. Subsidies for low-income individuals and families is another consideration in the equation. When health care reform has been involved in campaign promises, as it was for President Barack Obama in the United States, that adds another twist to the picture.

A Salmonella bacterium, a common cause of food poisoning.
A Salmonella bacterium, a common cause of food poisoning.

Public safety in the light of communicable diseases has been has been one of the leading public health issues in the twenty-first century. International travel creates new patterns in disease transmission. In the new century, important outbreaks have occurred with Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), Bird Flu, Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE)—also known as mad-cow disease (MCD), and when affecting humans, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD or nvCJD)—and Influenza A virus subtype H1N1, or swine flu, responsible for the 2009 flu pandemic.

Salmonella has been found in chicken and turkey pot pies.
Salmonella has been found in chicken and turkey pot pies.

Food safety has also made headlines in the twenty-first century. Major occurrences include issues with Chinese milk and Canadian listeriosis in 2008, and outbreaks in the United States of Salmonella, botulism, and E. coli 0157:H7. The Salmonella and E. coli outbreaks in the United States have been numerous, with salmonella found in peanut butter, Jalapeno peppers, alfalfa sprouts, chicken and turkey pot pies, spinach and E.coli on ground beef and spinach, and at several Taco Bell establishments.

Public health issues include preventing and controlling communicable diseases like swine flu.
Public health issues include preventing and controlling communicable diseases like swine flu.

Stem cell research is a contentious public health issue because in many cases human embryos are destroyed or cloned to begin a stem cell line. Some people feel that this methodology makes the use of stem cells morally wrong, either because the embryo is not being valued for its own existence, i.e., as a human or potential human, or because they are concerned that the therapeutic cloning done to produce stem cells is too close to reproductive cloning, which they find morally onerous. Other methods of obtaining stem cells are being pursued in order to obviate these objections and focus on the research possibilities.

Proper hand washing is essential to preventing the spread of communicable diseases.
Proper hand washing is essential to preventing the spread of communicable diseases.

Vaccination to help wipe out and prevent the return of dangerous diseases is another public health issue. The reluctance of some parents to have children vaccinated—whether because they are concerned about a possible connection between vaccinations and autism or on other grounds, for example, religious beliefs—is problematic because it lies at the frontier of personal choice and public safety.

Mary Elizabeth
Mary Elizabeth

Mary Elizabeth is passionate about reading, writing, and research, and has a penchant for correcting misinformation on the Internet. In addition to contributing articles to WiseGEEK about art, literature, and music, Mary Elizabeth is a teacher, composer, and author. She has a B.A. from the University of Chicago’s writing program and an M.A. from the University of Vermont, and she has written books, study guides, and teacher materials on language and literature, as well as music composition content for Sibelius Software.

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Mary Elizabeth
Mary Elizabeth

Mary Elizabeth is passionate about reading, writing, and research, and has a penchant for correcting misinformation on the Internet. In addition to contributing articles to WiseGEEK about art, literature, and music, Mary Elizabeth is a teacher, composer, and author. She has a B.A. from the University of Chicago’s writing program and an M.A. from the University of Vermont, and she has written books, study guides, and teacher materials on language and literature, as well as music composition content for Sibelius Software.

Learn more...

Discussion Comments

Sporkasia

@Animandel - I respect your opinion that vaccinations are the best way to prevent the spread of many diseases, but I also respect the opinions of parents who believe vaccinations are harming their children. I don't know who is right and who is wrong, but neither does anyone else, so we all have to do what we think is best to protect our families.

Animandel

Complaining that medicine and science are not doing enough to fight diseases and keep people healthy is something most of us do at one time or another. However, as the last paragraph of this article points out, even when we are given good, almost perfect, ways to prevent diseases some people refuse to make use of them.

With the vaccinations we have to prevent serious diseases, like polio for one, there is no reason these diseases should be making a comeback and killing and injuring people once again. Science, medicine and government can do only so much, ultimately we have to do the right things to protect ourselves and the people around us.

Laotionne

When you are part of a middle class or upper class family you can't help but take some things for granted that people from poor families are not able take advantage of. Going to the dentist twice a years seems like such a hassle sometimes, but there are plenty of kids and adults who have never been to a dentist except in the case of an emergency.

That's why I think getting everyone to see a doctor regularly is the biggest public health care issue in America. Not only would this mean that people would be healthier, but this would also save the government money because we wouldn't spend nearly as much money for expensive procedures for the poor and elderly. Many of the health conditions they suffer from could have been prevented with regular health care, which would be much less costly.

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    • A Salmonella bacterium, a common cause of food poisoning.
      By: Lyuba Bunakova
      A Salmonella bacterium, a common cause of food poisoning.
    • Salmonella has been found in chicken and turkey pot pies.
      By: msheldrake
      Salmonella has been found in chicken and turkey pot pies.
    • Public health issues include preventing and controlling communicable diseases like swine flu.
      By: emde71
      Public health issues include preventing and controlling communicable diseases like swine flu.
    • Proper hand washing is essential to preventing the spread of communicable diseases.
      By: byrdyak
      Proper hand washing is essential to preventing the spread of communicable diseases.