The Public Health Police

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Trevor Hoppe
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Hiv Positive ◽  
Local Health ◽  
Health Departments ◽  
Adherence To Treatment ◽  
The Public ◽  
Treatment Regimens ◽  
Health Authorities ◽  
Public Health Authorities ◽  
Local Health Authorities

As the HIV epidemic wore on in the 2000s, public health authorities became enamored with the idea of “ending AIDS.” That is, if they could just get HIV-positive people to take their pills and stop infecting other people. Health departments began to track HIV-positive clients more closely, aiming to control their behavior and ensure their adherence to treatment regimens. This chapter explores how local health authorities ensure that HIV-positive clients behave in a manner officials deem responsible—and how they catch and punish those who do not. While the state maintains that the work of local health officials is done solely in the interests of promoting public health, their efforts to control HIV-positive clients reveal that they are also engaged in policing and law enforcement.

Application for Public Health Accreditation Among US Local Health Departments in 2013 to 2019: Impact of Service and Activity Mix

2020 ◽  
pp. e1-e8
Author(s):  
Jonathon P. Leider ◽  
Jessica Kronstadt ◽  
Valerie A. Yeager ◽  
Kellie Hall ◽  
Chelsey K. Saari ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
United States ◽  
Latent Class ◽  
The United States ◽  
Local Health ◽  
Health Departments ◽  
Local Health Departments ◽  
Profile Data ◽  
The Public ◽  
Funding Support

Objectives. To examine correlates of applying for accreditation among small local health departments (LHDs) in the United States through 2019. Methods. We used administrative data from the Public Health Accreditation Board (PHAB) and 2013, 2016, and 2019 Profile data from the National Association of County and City Health Officials to examine correlates of applying for PHAB accreditation. We fit a latent class analysis (LCA) to characterize LHDs by service mix and size. We made bivariate comparisons using the t test and Pearson χ2. Results. By the end of 2019, 126 small LHDs had applied for accreditation (8%). When we compared reasons for not pursuing accreditation, we observed a difference by size for perceptions that standards exceeded LHD capacity (47% for small vs 22% for midsized [P < .001] and 0% for large [P < .001]). Conclusions. Greater funding support, considering differing standards by LHD size, and recognition that service mix might affect practicality of accreditation are all relevant considerations in attempting to increase uptake of accreditation for small LHDs. Public Health Implications. Overall, small LHDs represented about 60% of all LHDs that had not yet applied to PHAB. (Am J Public Health. Published online ahead of print December 22, 2020: e1–e8. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2020.306007 )

scholarly journals Rational trust in resilient health systems

2019 ◽  
Vol 34 (7) ◽  
pp. 553-557 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sonja Kristine Kittelsen ◽  
Vincent Charles Keating
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Health System ◽  
Health Systems ◽  
The Public ◽  
Public Health Emergencies ◽  
Health Authorities ◽  
Cast Doubt ◽  
Public Health Authorities ◽  
System Resilience ◽  
Relevant Component

AbstractThe 2014–15 Ebola epidemic in West Africa highlighted the significance of trust between the public and public health authorities in the mitigation of health crises. Since the end of the epidemic, there has been a focus amongst scholars and practitioners on building resilient health systems, which many see as an important precondition for successfully combatting future outbreaks. While trust has been acknowledged as a relevant component of health system resilience, we argue for a more sustained theoretical engagement with underlying models of trust in the literature. This article takes a first step in showing the importance of theoretical engagement by focusing on the appeal to rational models of trust in particular in the health system resilience literature, and how currently unconsidered assumptions in this model cast doubt on the effectiveness of strategies to generate trust, and therein resilience, during acute public health emergencies.

scholarly journals Geographic Information Systems (GIS), an Informative Start for Challenging Process of Etiologic Investigation of Diseases and Public Health Policy Making

2017 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Alireza Mosavi Jarrahi ◽  
M Zare ◽  
A Sadeghi
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Policy Making ◽  
Population Characteristics ◽  
Environment Interaction ◽  
Gis Technology ◽  
The Public ◽  
Technological Disasters ◽  
Health Authorities ◽  
Public Health Authorities ◽  
Health And Disease

Background: The public health has been always concerned of the immediate environment of human as causal factors for different diseases and health outcomes. Epidemiology, as one of the fundamental basis of public health, is concerned of how diseases are distributed in terms of geographical, chronological, and human population characteristics and employees the descriptive nature of such spread to draw conclusion on the etiology of health or disease utcome for further policy making on prevention of disease or promotion of health.Methods: In this paper, we present the importance of GIS technology in epidemiology from both descriptive and etiologic standpoints and elaborate how this technology can stand in the forefront of disease and health outcome measures in the coming decades. The paper will address the history of geo-related health and disease issues. The mapping tool as a traditionally strong resource in the public health will be explored. The advances in Information Technology and one of its best utilized offshoot, GIS, in Health and disease will be discussed. How the huge repository of generated or ever generating geo-related data and information is utilized to address etiology of diseases or to help public health authorities in making informed policy making decisions are explored.Results: The utilization of GIS technology in diseases with intermittent host such as malaria, yellow fever, or other parasitic diseases has already been well established. The GIS technology and its utilization in chronic and degenerative diseases such as cancer, diabetes, and aging are under development and new frontiers are discovering. The limitation of GIS technology in addressing host environment interaction in micro-environment (at the molecular biology and tissue pathogenicity level) and gene–environment interaction (at the individual level) will further be discussed.Conclusion: We then distress on the efficient use of GIS both in the etiologic investigation of diseases and health events as well as the utilization of the GIS technology as a administrative tool in the help of public health authorities and policy makers in strategic management of health of a community or emergency management of man-made or technological disasters (e.g., wars) or naturally occurring disasters (e.g., earthquake and floods).

scholarly journals Outbreak of norovirus infection in a nursing home in northern Slovenia, July 2007

2007 ◽  
Vol 12 (41) ◽  
Author(s):  
I Grmek Kosnik ◽  
B Peternelj ◽  
M Pohar ◽  
A Kraigher
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Nursing Home ◽  
Gastrointestinal Infection ◽  
The Public ◽  
Health Authorities ◽  
Public Health Authorities

On 27 July 2007, an outbreak of gastrointestinal infection in a nursing home was reported to the public health authorities in Kranj (25 km northwest of Ljubljana).

scholarly journals Acceptance and Attitudes Toward COVID-19 Vaccines: A Cross-Sectional Study from Jordan

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tamam El-Elimat ◽  
Mahmoud M. AbuAlSamen ◽  
Basima A. Almomani ◽  
Nour A. Al-Sawalha ◽  
Feras Q. Alali
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Healthcare Providers ◽  
Vaccine Hesitancy ◽  
Sources Of Information ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
The Public ◽  
Awareness Campaigns ◽  
Health Authorities ◽  
Public Acceptability ◽  
Public Health Authorities

AbstractBackgroundVaccines are effective interventions that can reduce the high burden of diseases globally. However, public vaccine hesitancy is a pressing problem for public health authorities. With the availability of COVID-19 vaccines, little information is available on the public acceptability and attitudes towards the COVID-19 vaccines in Jordan. This study aimed to investigate the acceptability of COVID-19 vaccines and its predictors in addition to the attitudes towards these vaccines among public in Jordan.MethodsAn online, cross-sectional, and self-administered questionnaire was instrumentalized to survey adult participants from Jordan on the acceptability of COVID-19 vaccines. Logistic regression analysis was used to find the predictors of COVID-19 vaccines’ acceptability.ResultsA total of 3,100 participants completed the survey. The public acceptability of COVID-19 vaccines was fairly low (37.4%) in Jordan. Males (OR=2.488, 95CI%=1.834–3.375, p<.001) and those who took the seasonal influenza vaccine (OR=2.036, 95CI%=1.306–3.174, p=.002) were more likely to accept Covid-19 vaccines. Similarly, participants who believed that vaccines are generally safe (OR=9.258, 95CI%=6.020–14.237, p<.001) and those who were willing to pay for vaccines (OR=19.223, 95CI%=13.665–27.042, p<.001), once available, were more likely to accept the COVID-19 vaccines. However, those above 35 years old (OR=0.376, 95CI%=0.233-0.607, p<.001) and employed participants (OR=0.542, 95CI%=0.405-0.725, p<.001) were less likely to accept the COVID-19 vaccines. Moreover, participants who believed that there was a conspiracy behind COVID-19 (OR=0.502, 95CI%=0.356- 0.709, p<.001) and those who do not trust any source of information on COVID-19 vaccines (OR=0.271, 95CI%=0.183 – 0.400, p<.001), were less likely to have acceptance towards them. The most trusted sources of information on COVID-19 vaccines were healthcare providers.ConclusionSystematic interventions are required by public health authorities to reduce the levels of vaccines’ hesitancy and improve their acceptance. We believe these results and specifically the low rate of acceptability is alarming to Jordanian health authorities and should stir further studies on the root causes and the need of awareness campaigns. These interventions should take the form of reviving the trust in national health authorities and structured awareness campaigns that offer transparent information about the safety and efficacy of the vaccines and the technology that was utilized in their production.

scholarly journals Online Information on Electronic Cigarettes: Comparative Study of Relevant Websites From Baidu and Google Search Engines

10.2196/14725 ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. e14725
Author(s):  
Ting Chen ◽  
Sarah Gentry ◽  
Dechao Qiu ◽  
Yan Deng ◽  
Caitlin Notley ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Search Engines ◽  
Electronic Cigarettes ◽  
Online Information ◽  
Web Based ◽  
The Public ◽  
Health Authorities ◽  
Cigarette Advertising ◽  
Public Health Authorities ◽  
Google Search

Background Online information on electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) may influence people’s perception and use of e-cigarettes. Websites with information on e-cigarettes in the Chinese language have not been systematically assessed. Objective The aim of this study was to assess and compare the types and credibility of Web-based information on e-cigarettes identified from Google (in English) and Baidu (in Chinese) search engines. Methods We used the keywords vaping or e-cigarettes to conduct a search on Google and the equivalent Chinese characters for Baidu. The first 50 unique and relevant websites from each of the two search engines were included in this analysis. The main characteristics of the websites, credibility of the websites, and claims made on the included websites were systematically assessed and compared. Results Compared with websites on Google, more websites on Baidu were owned by manufacturers or retailers (15/50, 30% vs 33/50, 66%; P<.001). None of the Baidu websites, compared to 24% (12/50) of Google websites, were provided by public or health professional institutions. The Baidu websites were more likely to contain e-cigarette advertising (P<.001) and less likely to provide information on health education (P<.001). The overall credibility of the included Baidu websites was lower than that of the Google websites (P<.001). An age restriction warning was shown on all advertising websites from Google (15/15) but only on 10 of the 33 (30%) advertising websites from Baidu (P<.001). Conflicting or unclear health and social claims were common on the included websites. Conclusions Although conflicting or unclear claims on e-cigarettes were common on websites from both Baidu and Google search engines, there was a lack of online information from public health authorities in China. Unbiased information and evidence-based recommendations on e-cigarettes should be provided by public health authorities to help the public make informed decisions regarding the use of e-cigarettes.

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