The New Public Health Of Chronic Disease

The U.S. Health system spends a higher portion of its gross domestic product than any other country but ranks 37 out of 191 countries according to its performance.” (WHO, 2000, p. 1) Progression in the United States has not kept up with the advances in other wealthy nations dealing with the population health. Disease and chronic disability report almost 50% of America health problem (JAMA, 2013).

From the days of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid era and up until the late 1800’s other countries, France, Germany and Great Britain to name a few, were way ahead of the United States in health care education and practice. This added to the fact that medical

In the early 1900’s medicine was making some steps closer into some great improvements for health and better understanding of the human body. Doctors with sufficient knowledge of the human body and cures for diseases and viruses were scarce. People were much more concerned with government and politics, than health and medicine, until one of the greatest and most grotesque lethal pandemics that’s struck the earth in human history. This pandemic the “Spanish Flu” spread so rapidly and had an extremely high mortality rate. This was caused by the close contact of humans and poor cleanliness and sanitation, and the host (virus) and the body taking harsh action

What are the major causes of disease and death in the 21st century (e.g., chronic illnesses, communicable diseases, etc.) that continue to affect U.S. citizens in spite of the achievements in public health in the past century? What have been some of the strategies implemented to combat these

Infectious epidemics and pandemics have happened all through mankind's history. “They remain the prime cause of death worldwide and will not be conquered during our lifetimes.” The flu of 1918 was one of the deadliest epidemics in history. “It infected an estimated 500 million people worldwide–about one-third of the planet’s population at the time–and killed an estimated 20 million to 50 million victims. More than 25 percent of the U.S. population became sick, and some 675,000 Americans died during the pandemic.” No one knew how the virus spread, there were no antibiotics to fight it, and no flu shots to prevent it. In the final year of World War I, it struck terror in the hearts of people all across Europe and left more death in its wake than the combined military actions of the combatants. “It killed more Americans in a few months than World War I, World War II, the Korean War, and the

Death, sickness, and epidemics were very prominent during the Progressive Era. America was going through a very rough time because of the increase in health risks. With all this happening America was recovering from World War One and the Financial Crises in the business community. During 1916 America experienced one of its first epidemics with a large case of polio, causing nearly 3000 deaths with over 9000 cases. This epidemic could have been caused due to the Public’s Health being poor during the Progressive Era, this was due to the lack of basic human sanitation, poor living conditions, and the rarity of children’s medical institutions (Healthcare).

This achievement occurred during the Age of Enlightenment. Smallpox could not be completely controlled during that period but the invention of the vaccine made it possible to prevent the spread of smallpox and finally eradicate it 1980. As France entered the Age of Enlightenment in the eighteenth century, public health became an important aspect of society. Concept of equality enabled people to understand health in a better way. Infant mortality was focused and government was forced to regulate alcohol and ensure the safety of infants. Health education got popular. Occupational health was also focused and several occupational ailments were understood and described during this era. Significance of mental health was realized and it was started to be viewed as a health problem. It shows that the Age of Enlightenment was important for the development of health care field (Bouldin, 2010).

In a response to the polio outbreak of 1916, Dr. Haven Emerson, the Health Commissioner for New York City, stated: “we have learned little that is new about the disease, but much that is old about ourselves.” The meaning of this has to do with the ideology that no matter the era, people have a common response to the outbreak of contagious disease. Human nature supplies us as humans with a common reaction to dealing with disease, and it is one that can be seen during the Black Death, polio epidemics, and ebola epidemics, as well as many other epidemics. These responses can be both positive and negative, and often have to do with containment of the disease, preventative measures - which may or may not be effective; and scapegoating. Although there may be individualized responses for each of these diseases, the way in which the health-care officers and the public handle the outbreak of disease generally follows the same pattern overall.

The barriers to receiving effective public health treatment are nothing short of intimidating. Many people in the United States could die if they do not receive adequate public health that take care of their diseases. The government need to create available programs to deal with the increase of diseases and with the aging U.S. population. Invasive and debatable actions sometimes are needed it to find the causes of some diseases.

In the late eighteenth century and early nineteenth century, the average person was treated within their own home for many of the illnesses that now send us rushing off to the doctor’s office or the hospital. Doctors were only called upon for extreme situations or epidemics, and for the most part, they made house calls. This was only possible because of low population densities in early America and the relatively primitive state of medical science. As time passed hospitals began to follow American settlement westward providing more centralized and

In the early 1800s, both in Europe and in the United States, physicians with formal medical training began to stress the idea that germs and social conditions might cause and spread disease, especially in cities. Many municipalities created "dispensaries" that dispensed medicines to the poor and offered free physician services. Epidemics of cholera, diphtheria, tuberculosis, and yellow fever, and concerns about sanitation and hygiene, led many city governments to create departments of health. New advances in studying bacteria were put to practical use as "germ theory" became the accepted cause for illness. It was in the face of epidemics and poor sanitation, government-sponsored public health, and healthcare that private healthcare began to systematically diverge.

During the early part of the 20th century, infectious diseases predominated as the highest cause of mortality

For as long as humanity has existed we have all faced a common enemy, disease. From the flu to the plague, it has scorched its way through cities, ravaged entire countries and has impeded us at every turn. It’s only relatively recently we’ve actually been able to fight it back with widespread education of basic hygiene, access to clean water and modern medicine. We have wiped out viruses that before would have once been a gruesome and painful death sentence with a simple injection that takes less than 5 seconds. Our understanding and methods of control have vastly improved in the past 200 years where superstitions, that would now sound ridiculous even with our basic understanding of disease, ran rampant. For example, in 19th century Britain,

Progression through these eras resulted in the improvement of health strategies and interventions, allowing for the United States to be proactive in their preparation efforts of disease, rather than reactive to the imminent threat to human health and safety. The 20th century was the single most advancing era of public health in history, changing not only the world of medicine as we know it, but changing public perception of the world they live in .

The 21st Century has seen the healthcare system struggle with challenges such as an increase in chronic conditions, an increase in government spending on public health, and emerging threats such as global health security and antibiotic resistance. On the positive side, more people have gained access to care. To deal with these emerging issues as well as existing challenges, we need an effective public health workforce. The public health has the role of protecting the health of citizens. This could be through health promotion and lobbying for increased access to care. To address the problem of the rise in chronic ailments, public health has a role of creating awareness on chronic conditions, their symptoms and management. This is because these conditions are expensive to treat and drain the resources of patients and their families. Public health should therefore educate the public on the importance of screening and conduct these screening services for early diagnosis and prevention of chronic diseases. Another role of public health in the 21st Century is to provide and use evidence based practice in providing clinical services. This would help in addressing some of the emerging challenges such as antibiotic resistance.