Health Education and the AIDS Epidemic

1989 ◽  
Vol 154 (6) ◽  
pp. 754-767 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leon Eisenberg
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Social Factors ◽  
Disease Transmission ◽  
Public Attitudes ◽  
Educational Programme ◽  
Health Measures ◽  
Aids Epidemic ◽  
Ethical Debate ◽  
Limited Success ◽  
The Social

What is known about the biology of AIDS is reviewed, and the social factors which influence disease transmission and public attitudes are considered. After an evaluation of the methods available to control the epidemic, the reasons for the limited success of public health measures thus far undertaken are considered. The ethical debate on public health policy is analysed, and the need for a nationwide educational programme on AIDS is emphasised – one which is responsive to the rights and obligations of citizens in a democratic society.

Communicable and Other Infectious Diseases

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Markus Frischhut
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
European Union ◽  
Infectious Diseases ◽  
Disease Transmission ◽  
Eu Law ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Ethical Perspective ◽  
Health Measures ◽  
Environment Agency ◽  
And Control

This chapter discusses the most important features of EU law on infectious diseases. Communicable diseases not only cross borders, they also often require measures that cross different areas of policy because of different vectors for disease transmission. The relevant EU law cannot be attributed to one sectoral policy only, and thus various EU agencies participate in protecting public health. The key agency is the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control. Other important agencies include the European Environment Agency; European Food Safety Authority; and the Consumers, Health, Agriculture and Food Executive Agency. However, while integration at the EU level has facilitated protection of the public's health, it also has created potential conflicts among the different objectives of the European Union. The internal market promotes the free movement of products, but public health measures can require restrictions of trade. Other conflicts can arise if protective public health measures conflict with individual human rights. The chapter then considers risk assessment and the different tools of risk management used in dealing with the challenges of infectious diseases. It also turns to the external and ethical perspective and the role the European Union takes in global health.

Public Health and Social Justice: An Argument Against Stigma as a Tool of Health Promotion and Disease Prevention

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erika Blacksher
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Health Promotion ◽  
Social Justice ◽  
Public Life ◽  
Fair Share ◽  
Health Measures ◽  
The Social ◽  
Challenges And Opportunities ◽  
Agents Of Change ◽  
Shared Humanity

This chapter argues against the use of stigma-inducing measures as tools of public health on grounds of social justice. The value of social justice in public health includes both a distributive demand for a fair share of health and the social determinants thereof and a recognitional demand to be treated as a peer in public life. The use of stigma-inducing measures violates the first demand by thwarting people’s access to important intra- and interpersonal, communal, and institutional resources that confer a health advantage; it violates the second by denying people’s shared humanity and ignoring complex non-dominant identities. The position taken in this chapter does not preclude public health measures that regulate and ban health-harming substances or try to move people toward healthier behaviors. It does require that public health partner with people to identify their communities’ health challenges and opportunities and to treat people as resourceful agents of change.

scholarly journals How to Survey Citizens’ Compliance with COVID-19 Public Health Measures: Evidence from Three Survey Experiments

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jean-François Daoust ◽  
Richard Nadeau ◽  
Ruth Dassonneville ◽  
Erick Lachapelle ◽  
Éric Bélanger ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Social Norm ◽  
Choice Making ◽  
Health Measures ◽  
Percentage Points ◽  
The Social ◽  
Survey Experiments ◽  
Current Context ◽  
Face Saving ◽  
Answer Choice

Abstract The extent to which citizens comply with newly enacted public health measures such as social distancing or lockdowns strongly affects the propagation of the virus and the number of deaths from COVID-19. It is however very difficult to identify non-compliance through survey research because claiming to follow the rules is socially desirable. Using three survey experiments, we examine the efficacy of different ‘face-saving’ questions that aim to reduce social desirability in the measurement of compliance with public health measures. Our treatments soften the social norm of compliance by way of a short preamble in combination with a guilty-free answer choice making it easier for respondents to admit non-compliance. We find that self-reported non-compliance increases by up to +11 percentage points when making use of a face-saving question. Considering the current context and the importance of measuring non-compliance, we argue that researchers around the world should adopt our most efficient face-saving question.

scholarly journals Smoke gets in your eyes: what is sociological about cigarettes?

2017 ◽  
Vol 65 (4) ◽  
pp. 882-897 ◽  
Author(s):  
Donncha Marron
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Social Context ◽  
Cigarette Smoking ◽  
Social Structures ◽  
Individual Agency ◽  
Health Measures ◽  
Social Divisions ◽  
The Social ◽  
Nineteenth And Twentieth Centuries ◽  
Social Distribution

Contemporary public health approaches increasingly draw attention to the unequal social distribution of cigarette smoking. In contrast, critical accounts emphasize the importance of smokers’ situated agency, the relevance of embodiment and how public health measures against smoking potentially play upon and exacerbate social divisions and inequality. Nevertheless, if the social context of cigarettes is worthy of such attention, and sociology lays a distinct claim to understanding the social, we need to articulate a distinct, positive and systematic claim for smoking as an object of sociological enquiry. This article attempts to address this by situating smoking across three main dimensions of sociological thinking: history and social change; individual agency and experience; and social structures and power. It locates the emergence and development of cigarettes in everyday life within the project of modernity of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. It goes on to assess the habituated, temporal and experiential aspects of individual smoking practices in everyday lifeworlds. Finally, it argues that smoking, while distributed in important ways by social class, also works relationally to render and inscribe it.

scholarly journals COVID-19 Outbreaks in Settings With Precarious Housing Conditions in Germany: Challenges and Lessons Learned

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ruth Zimmermann ◽  
Navina Sarma ◽  
Doris Thieme-Thörel ◽  
Katharina Alpers ◽  
Tanja Artelt ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Disease Transmission ◽  
Residential Buildings ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Control Measures ◽  
Sequencing Analysis ◽  
Housing Conditions ◽  
Health Measures ◽  
The City

Two COVID-19 outbreaks occurred in residential buildings with overcrowded housing conditions in the city of Göttingen in Germany during May and June 2020, when COVID-19 infection incidences were low across the rest of the country, with a national incidence of 2.6/100,000 population. The outbreaks increased the local incidence in the city of Göttingen to 123.5/100,000 in June 2020. Many of the affected residents were living in precarious conditions and experienced language barriers. The outbreaks were characterized by high case numbers and attack rates among the residents, many asymptomatic cases, a comparatively young population, and substantial outbreak control measures implemented by local authorities. We analyzed national and local surveillance data, calculated age-, and gender-specific attack rates and performed whole genome sequencing analysis to describe the outbreak and characteristics of the infected population. The authorities' infection control measures included voluntary and compulsory testing of all residents and mass quarantine. Public health measures, such as the general closure of schools and a public space as well as the prohibition of team sports at local level, were also implemented in the district to limit the outbreaks locally. The outbreaks were under control by the end of June 2020. We describe the measures to contain the outbreaks, the challenges experienced and lessons learned. We discuss how public health measures can be planned and implemented through consideration of the needs and vulnerabilities of affected populations. In order to avoid coercive measures, barrier-free communication, with language translation when needed, and consideration of socio-economic circumstances of affected populations are crucial for controlling infectious disease transmission in an outbreak effectively and in a timely way.

scholarly journals The memory of an outrageous public health scandal

2021 ◽  
pp. 130-133
Author(s):  
Sally de França Lacerda Rolim ◽  
Claudio Gleidiston Lima da Silva ◽  
Fabian Danilo Unigarro Ramirez ◽  
Raul Cesar Fortaleza Pinheiro ◽  
Juliane dos Anjos de Paula ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Federal Government ◽  
Healthcare Workers ◽  
Healthcare Professionals ◽  
Oxygen Depletion ◽  
Northern Region ◽  
Health Measures ◽  
The Social ◽  
Anxiety Levels ◽  
Logistical Problem

Introduction: Manaus is an isolated city, localized in the hearth of the Amazonas rainforest, with two million inhabitants, a big territorial extension, distant from neighbor cities and next to the shores of Negro and Solimões rivers. The access overland is difficult, which obligates the oxygen tanks be transported by river or air.  This created and enormous logistical problem, added to the neglect of the Federal Government with the northern region of the country. Objective: Analyze what are the psychiatric repercussions on the explosion of in the lack of oxygen in Manaus, capital of the Amazonas, Brazil. Methods: Studies were identified using large-circulation international journals. Results: A scandal is happening. This situation is creating a grief community – particular grief became a common and public one – to the memory of an outrageous public health scandal. Therefore, dramatic stories of families of patients and the overwhelmed healthcare professionals shared on the social media and local press brings glimpses of the angst of this chaos. An entire wing of patients died caused by the oxygen depletion. Conclusion: This situation is causing a collective hysteria, taking healthcare workers and families of patients to desperation. Fear appears to be a consequence of the feeling of powerlessness. Anxiety levels are really elevated causing direct side effects to another mental health measures.

scholarly journals The time is now for public health to lead the way on addressing financial strain in Canada

2020 ◽  
Vol 111 (6) ◽  
pp. 984-987
Author(s):  
Nicole M. Glenn ◽  
Candace I. J. Nykiforuk
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Financial Strain ◽  
Call To Action ◽  
The Core ◽  
Health Measures ◽  
Public Health Professionals ◽  
The Social ◽  
Novel Coronavirus ◽  
Underserved Groups

AbstractFinancial strain was an issue for many Canadians long before the arrival of the global novel coronavirus pandemic in early 2020. However, it has worsened in recent months in relation to the pandemic and public health measures put in place to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Members of underserved groups and people who experience poverty are particularly vulnerable to financial strain and its negative health impacts. As public health professionals, we should be concerned. In this commentary, we discuss the concept of financial strain and its health consequences and highlight how existing research in the area is falling short and why. We suggest next steps to guide research and practice related to financial strain such that it reflects the core values of public health, including equity, life course approaches, and the social determinants of health. This commentary is a call to action for public health researchers and practitioners in Canada to take a more prominent role in shaping the agenda on financial strain to support financial well-being for all.

The Social Rate of Return on Investment in Public Health, 1880–1910

1974 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
pp. 392-421 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edward Meeker
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Well Being ◽  
The United States ◽  
Rate Of Return ◽  
Health Measures ◽  
Life Expectancy At Birth ◽  
New Public Health ◽  
Period 1880 ◽  
The Social ◽  
Sanitary Sewers

The period 1880–1910 saw great improvement in the health of city dwellers. Life expectancy at birth for males in Boston rose from 37 in 1880 to 46 in 1910; in New York City it rose from 29 in 1880 to 45 in 1910. The improvement in the state of health came largely from a decline in the incidence of infectious disease. Recent studies have suggested that most of this decline is fairly attributable to improvements in the standard of living—especially as reflected in diets and housing—and, for cities, to new public health measures—especially the installation of sanitary sewers and the provision of central supplies of pure drinking water. Government installation of public health projects in the United States was a part of the “sanitation movement,” which began some time around 1880. During the thirty-year period 1880–1910 there was a rapid increase in the fraction of the urban population served by sanitary sewers and improved water systems. For example, in 1875 fewer than 30,000 urban citizens were supplied with filtered water. By 1910 the figure had risen to over 10,000,000. That the improved health resulting from these public health measures must have been regarded by its recipients as an increase in their well being is clear. What is not clear is whether the recipients of improved health would have been even better off if the resources used in constructing and maintaining public health projects had been put to alternative uses unrelated to health. In this article I shall estimate the social rates of return on the cumulated investments in public health projects as could have been perceived by their builders and show that it may have exceeded the market rate of return on capital by several times.

scholarly journals Trust in social non-pharmaceutical interventions and travel intention during a pandemic

2021 ◽  
pp. 135676672110095
Author(s):  
Jin Young Chung ◽  
Choong-Ki Lee ◽  
Yae-Na Park
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Infectious Disease ◽  
Adaptive Behavior ◽  
Human Mobility ◽  
Willingness To Accept ◽  
Travel And Tourism ◽  
Health Measures ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Pharmaceutical Interventions

Non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) become increasingly one of the most significant practices for preventing the spread of a pandemic through the movement of people (e.g., travel and tourism). Past studies argued that individuals’ acceptance of NPIs is adaptive behavior, which increases travel intention during a pandemic. Yet, firm beliefs about the extent to which others accept NPIs are as important as personal willingness to accept NPIs, due to the social and environmental components of public health measures against infectious disease. Thus, this study examined how one’s trust in social NPIs is related to travel intention during a pandemic. Data were collected in South Korea, one of the few countries where no measures to limit human mobility were taken after the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak. Results showed that the trust in social NPIs meditates the relationship between the efforts to navigate travel constraints and intentions to travel during the pandemic.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document