Public Health Needs Your Help

In the U.S., at least, one of the biggest enemies to public health is fear of the unknown or fear of what is perceived as the truth. The American Council on Science and Health states that the indiscriminant misconceptions publicized as a pandemic does a great disservice to the real role of public health officials who are charged with keeping the public safe. Therefore, U.S. officials need to be vigilant about the message they send to the masses. If the public perceived a pandemic, massive hysteria may arise and little positive or accurate information can be disseminated.

A case in point concerns the AIDS/HIV virus. This was once a disease thought to be spread by holding hands or coughing on someone. People were frightened to be around those with AIDS for fear of contracting the disease. Even some children with AIDS were banned from attending school because they may be contagious. All of this was based on fear and ignorance. Fortunately, with time, education and a mass communication campaign to publicize facts about transmission, many people began to understand how this disease was spread and worked to prevent an outbreak. Of course this all took a great deal of financial resources.

However, throwing money at a problem isn’t always the best solution. The oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico is one example where money alone will not solve the problem. Billions of dollars have been spent in the past 40 days to resolve the gushing oil, yet as of this writing, nothing of substance has been accomplished. Oil is still rapidly spewing from the earth. This is and will be a public health hazard for years to come.

Globally, the main concerns of public health officials are pandemics, endemics, poverty, and politics. Political abuse, or garnering as much power as possible, is one sure way to collapse well-established public health infrastructure. For example, the once agrarian towns in South Africa became corrupted, militaristic, and led by an oligarchic government. This made it impossible for roads to be built, basic telephone services to be employed, and electricity used for basic human needs. Shipping routes were unavailable for all but the wealthy and the impoverished areas could not afford medicines, good quality food, hospitals to be built, or trained personnel to keep people alive.

Around the world, infectious microbes were cause for a myriad of diseases especially among the poor neighborhoods. The people in these neighborhoods hadn’t the money to spend for proper diets. Therefore, their immune systems were compromised, their living conditions made it possible for the citizens to develop dysentery, and they were exposed to other various bacteria in contaminated waste and poor water supply. Poverty and disease are not mutually exclusive; when a country suffers financially, people’s health is compromised. One person gets the disease and instead of ridding that disease from one person, it spreads throughout the community. Then, the community hasn’t the financial or other resources to combat the situation and it turns into a pandemic. If this becomes a way of life, then this becomes an endemic.

In order for public health officials to thwart calamities and keep its citizens safe, a central government must be (relatively) free from corruption and put its people’s safety and lives ahead of individual power.