• What is public health?
• Public health functions
• Public health organizations and institutions
• Public health achievements in the 20th century

We explain what public health is, its functions and which agencies and institutions administer it. Also, his achievements in the twentieth century.

One of the main achievements of public health is the generalization of vaccines.

What is public health?

Public health is the medical discipline in charge of studying the forms of protection, support and improvement of the Health of the populations human. He dedicates himself so much to the work of hygiene Y prevention diseases, as well as their control and eradication.

To do this, he uses knowledge from other scientific fields such as biology, the sociology and other branches of medicine. It is also one of the pillars of university medical training.

Public health as discipline has a relatively recent formal existence, which coincides with the discovery of the techniques of basic sanitation of modern medicine. However, many of its contents have been known or at least intuited by the humanity from time immemorial.

Each of the ancient peoples had their own methods of sanitarization and their own concepts of public health, even when it involved a combination of philosophical knowledge Y religious knowledge. In fact, it is estimated that many of the ritual prohibitions regarding conduct, feeding Y traditions religious texts such as the Bible or the Koran, have a sanitary origin.

However, today public health is one of the main medical disciplines in practice. In general lines, it studies the following determinants of health, that is, with the factors that govern the health of peoples:

• The lifestyle. Especially with regard to physical exercise (or sedentary lifestyle) and vices (cigarettes, alcohol, etc.).
• Human biology. That is, the inheritance genetics with which we are born and that predisposes us to suffer from certain ailments and be resistant to others.
• The national health system. In other words, the ease of access to medical and preventive services that our nation offers us.
• The environment. In terms of what kind of infectious agents or harmful effects we can be exposed to frequently.

Public health functions

Public health is exercised differently in the different nations, but broadly fulfills the following functions:

• Diagnosis, evaluation and monitoring of diseases that afflict the population.
• Maintenance of the public health care and surveillance apparatus (hospitals, outpatient centers, etc.).
• Education and promotion of hygiene methods, prevention and reaction to diseases and other similar incidents.
• Evaluation of access to health resources in the country and promotion of their improvement.
• Reduction of the impact of epidemics, disasters and catastrophes on the national public health.

Public health organizations and institutions

International organizations like Unicef ​​prevent and fight various diseases.

Public health is one of the great national, regional and global concerns. It is particularly important since the interconnection of the world allowed the rapid transport of persons over great distances, and thus promoting the possibility of the emergence of new diseases or the equally rapid spread of their contagion.

Therefore, there are agencies and institutions of cooperation dedicated to the area of ​​public health, such as:

• The World Health Organization (WHO). The highest international authority on public health, seeks to coordinate the efforts of nations in epidemiological and preventive matters, both in normal and emergency situations.
• The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). It is a body attached to the United Nations that ensures the eradication of hunger and malnutrition in the world, serving as a forum for discussion in neutral terms of these issues.
• The UNICEF. Also attached to the United Nations, this Children's Fund is responsible for combating poverty, malnutrition and educational marginalization in the world, especially in underdeveloped countries, and therefore has an important impact on the education prevention and public health of nations.
• UNAIDS. The United Nations Organization to coordinate the fight against Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) throughout the world.
• The United Nations Human Settlements Program (PNUAH). Headquartered in Nairobi, Kenya, and founded in 1978, it aims to promote the sustainable development in Third World nations, thus achieving economic and social advances in health.

Public health achievements in the 20th century

As in other matters, the 20th century represented a huge leap forward for public health that was translated into enormous achievements such as:

• Large-scale childhood vaccination. Through the extensive national, regional and global vaccination days, the incidence of common diseases was reduced and infant mortality was considerably reduced throughout the world, even achieving practically eradicating diseases such as poliomyelitis.
• The control of numerous infectious diseases. Among them measles, Ebola outbreaks in Africa and even, despite not yet having a cure, the great AIDS / HIV pandemic that took place during the 1980s.
• Invention and massification of antibiotics. Since the discovery of penicillin in 1928, 3 generations of antibiotic compounds have been artificially created, useful for treating countless bacterial infections. Its use was so widespread and on such a large scale in various areas of human life that by the end of the century the bacteria they began to show resistance to the first two generations.
• Fluoridation of drinking water. Despite initial mistrust, this technique proved to be of paramount importance in treating waters of human consumption, eliminating in a very high percentage the presence of bacteria and other microorganisms.
• Family planning methods. The arrival of contraceptive pills in the 20th century, within the framework of the so-called “Sexual Revolution” of the 60s and 70s, brought with it the possibility of planning conception and entering motherhood with greater possibilities and greater control.
• Tobacco ban. Although in the mid-twentieth century there was already a debate regarding the link between cigarette smoking and cancer, hypertension and cardio-respiratory diseases, at the end of the century there was no doubt about this relationship and they proceeded to its gradual prohibition of cigarettes. public spaces, as part of a crusade against diseases linked to this habit.
• Extension of life expectancy. Going from the initial 50-65 years to the current figure of around 80 years of life, at least in developed nations.