Cuba and the Covid-19 pandemic

2021 ◽  
Vol 122 (1) ◽  
pp. 118-131
Author(s):  
Bob Oram
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
United States ◽  
Health System ◽  
Health Professionals ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Universal Health

For the UK struggling to deal with the Covid-19 pandemic, the experience of Cuba’s Ministry of Public Health over the past six decades provides the clearest case for a single, universal health system constituting an underlying national grid dedicated to prevention and care; an abundance of health professionals, accessible everywhere; a world-renowned science and biotech capability; and an educated public schooled in public health. All this was achieved despite being under a vicious blockade by the United States for all of that time.

Driving and Public Health

2021 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
United States ◽  
Health Problem ◽  
Cell Phone ◽  
Motor Vehicle ◽  
Electronic Device ◽  
Public Health Problem ◽  
The United States ◽  
Distracted Driving ◽  
The Past

Distracted driving is defined in the Oxford English Dictionary as “the practice of driving a motor vehicle while engaged in another activity, typically one that involves the use of a mobile phone or other electronic device.” However, other distractions not involving the use of a cell phone or texting are important as well, contributing to this burgeoning public health problem in the United States. Examples include talking to other passengers, adjusting the radio or other controls in the car, and daydreaming. Distracted driving has been linked to increased risk of motor vehicle crashes (MVCs) in the United States, representing one of the most preventable leading causes of death for youth ages 16 to 24 years. Undoubtedly, the proliferation of cell phone, global positioning system (GPS), and other in-vehicle and personal electronic device use while driving has led to this rise in distracted driving prevalence. This behavior has impacted society—including individual and commercial drivers, passengers, pedestrians—in countless numbers of ways, ranging from increased MVCs and deaths to the enactment of new driving laws. In 2016, for example, 20 percent of all US pediatric deaths (nearly 4,000 children and adolescents) were due to fatal MVCs. It has been estimated that at any given time, more than 650,000 drivers are using cell phones or manipulating electronic devices while driving. In the United States, efforts are underway to reduce this driving behavior. In the past two decades, state and federal laws have specifically targeted cell phone use and texting while driving as priority areas for legal intervention. Distracted driving laws have become “strategies of choice” for tackling this public health problem, though their enforcement has emerged as a major challenge and varies by jurisdiction and location. Multimodal interventions using models such as the “three Es” framework—Enactment of a law, Education of the public about the law and safety practices, and Enforcement of the law—have become accepted practice or viewed as necessary steps to successfully change this behavior caused by distractions while driving. This Oxford Bibliographies review introduces these and other aspects (including psychological influences and road conditions) of distracted driving through a presentation of annotated resources from peer- and non-peer-reviewed literature. This selective review aims to provide policymakers, program implementers, and researchers with a reliable source of information on the past and current state of American laws, policies, and priorities for distracted driving.

scholarly journals Early introductions and community transmission of SARS-CoV-2 variant B.1.1.7 in the United States

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tara Alpert ◽  
Erica Lasek-Nesselquist ◽  
Anderson F. Brito ◽  
Andrew L. Valesano ◽  
Jessica Rothman ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
United States ◽  
New York ◽  
Diagnostic Testing ◽  
The United States ◽  
International Travel ◽  
Health Concern ◽  
Public Health Response ◽  
Community Transmission ◽  
The Uk

SummaryThe emergence and spread of SARS-CoV-2 lineage B.1.1.7, first detected in the United Kingdom, has become a national public health concern in the United States because of its increased transmissibility. Over 500 COVID-19 cases associated with this variant have been detected since December 2020, but its local establishment and pathways of spread are relatively unknown. Using travel, genomic, and diagnostic testing data, we highlight the primary ports of entry for B.1.1.7 in the US and locations of possible underreporting of B.1.1.7 cases. New York, which receives the most international travel from the UK, is likely one of the key hubs for introductions and domestic spread. Finally, we provide evidence for increased community transmission in several states. Thus, genomic surveillance for B.1.1.7 and other variants urgently needs to be enhanced to better inform the public health response.

scholarly journals Application of Syndromic Surveillance to Describe Gunshot-related Injuries in Houston

2015 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ryan M. Arnold ◽  
Wesley McNeely ◽  
Kasimu Muhetaer ◽  
Biru Yang ◽  
Raouf R. Arafat
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
United States ◽  
Health Risk ◽  
Real Time ◽  
Emergency Departments ◽  
Syndromic Surveillance ◽  
The United States ◽  
Public Health Risk ◽  
The Past ◽  
Houston Area

Firearm-related injuries pose a substantial public health risk in the United States, and traditional means of studying this issue rely primarily on retrospective analyses. Syndromic surveillance, collected in over 30 Houston area emergency departments, is well suited to characterize and analyze gunshot injuries in the area in near real-time. Over the past two years, more than 900 gunshot-related injury visits were identified using this method, and ArcGIS effectively identified incident densities in ZIP codes throughout Houston. Most patients were males (86.3%), between the ages of 18 and 34 (64.7%).

Eugenics in the United States

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wendy Kline
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
United States ◽  
Public Health Service ◽  
The United States ◽  
Controversial Issues ◽  
The Past ◽  
Complicated Process ◽  
History Of ◽  
Race Betterment ◽  
The U.S

This article provides an understanding of the history of the nature/nurture debate that was initially of great interest to both intellectual and social historians. It presents in-depth studies of influential organization and individuals and discusses two approaches introduced by the history of science to the study of eugenics. It links eugenic concerns about race betterment with concerns about Mexican immigration, arguing that in the early twentieth century, the U.S. Public Health Service (USPHS) and the Border Patrol shaped the complicated process of racialization on the U.S.-Mexican borderlands. This article argues that disability is a category of analysis as important as race, class, or gender in understanding the past. Eugenics is no longer a forgotten relic of the past, but a vibrant field that addresses controversial issues from a variety of fields and standpoints.

Saving the Babies

2019 ◽  
pp. 121-144
Author(s):  
Dána-Ain Davis
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
United States ◽  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Maternal Mortality ◽  
Health Professionals ◽  
Premature Birth ◽  
Racial Politics ◽  
The United States ◽  
Special Consideration ◽  
Public Health Professionals

In the nineteenth century, the United States began to address its embarrassingly high rates of infant and maternal mortality, and later premature birth rates, in earnest. Those efforts have often been racially disparate. Using a critical racial lens, this chapter explores the uneven racial outcomes of the technologies of saving, or strategies used to save infants and mothers. A number of programs, policies, and scientific advancements, including the development of NICUs, have facilitated the development of saving interventions. The exploration of saving begins with the founding of the Children’s Bureau in 1912 and the Sheppard-Towner Act of 1916 and concludes with the use of NICUs. This chapter shows that the interventions have not been as successful for Black as for white infants and mothers, once again illustrating the racial politics of reproduction. Special consideration is given to the critique of NICU technology, about which both medical and public health professionals raise questions concerning how NICUs overshadow other forms of addressing prematurity.

Health Promotion and Disease Prevention in the Primary Health Care Setting: Setting the Scene

1994 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 129-131 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian Oldenburg
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Mental Health ◽  
United States ◽  
Premature Death ◽  
The United States ◽  
United States Department ◽  
The Past ◽  
Department Of Health ◽  
Related Risk ◽  
National Public Health

Last (1983) defines public health as: the efforts organised by society to protect, promote and restore the public's health. It is the combination of sciences, skills and beliefs that are directed to the maintenance and improvement of the health of all people through collective or social actions. The programs, services and institutions involved emphasise the prevention of disease and the health needs of the population as a whole. Public health activities change with changing technology and values, but the goals remain the same: to reduce the amount of disease, premature death and disability in the population. (p.45)Recommended goals and targets for addressing national public health problems and directed at reducing the amount of death and premature death have been proposed in many countries over the past 10 years, including the United States of America (United States Department of Health and Human Services, 1990), the United Kingdom (Department of Health, 1992), Canada (Ontario Premiers' Council on Health, 1987) and Australia (Nutbeam, Wise, Bauman, Harris, & Leeder, 1993). In Australia for example, over the past 2 years, much attention has been directed at health outcomes related to cardiovascular disease, cancers, accidents and injuries and mental health. All of these reports have emphasised the importance of changing those lifestyle and related risk factors associated with preventable causes of death. Priority lifestyle areas that have been identified include physical inactivity, diet and nutrition, smoking, alcohol and other drug use, safety behaviours, sun protective behaviours, appropriate use of medicines, immunisation, sexuality and reproductive health, oral hygiene, and mental health. Priority populations and appropriate settings for intervening in these areas have also been identified.

scholarly journals The United States: A system built on fragmentation

2019 ◽  
Vol 29 (Supplement_4) ◽  
Author(s):  
H. Jarman
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
United States ◽  
Health Care ◽  
Health Care System ◽  
The United States ◽  
Universal Health Care ◽  
Local Public Health ◽  
The Us ◽  
Universal Health ◽  
Care System

Abstract Background The United States is effectively a laboratory for ways to produce public goods, such as public health, on the cheap. Its c. 90,000 governments compete for residents, businesses, taxes, development, and jobs while also trying to compensate for the lack of universal health care coverage. They all have structural incentives to provide services as cheaply as possible. The effects are diverse and poorly mapped. They can mean innovation in organizational forms, a different and typically less expensive skill mix among the workers, poor quality, or simple under provision. The exact mix can often be hard to identify. It can also mean extreme responsiveness to funding from higher levels of government such as the states or federal government. Methods A comparative historical analysis (CHA) based on government documents, law, and secondary sources. Results The distinctively expansive scope of US public health actions is largely due to the country’s failure to establish a universal health care system, and the diversity of US public health tasks reflects local adaptation of tens of thousands of governments. This means that public health in the United States retains much of the activity it had in, for example, the UK before the establishment of the US. In particular, and even in states that accepted the Medicaid expansion in the Affordable Care Act (ACA), local public health departments provide a substantial amount of direct care and fill in for gaps in health care provision. Conclusions The US public health system is highly fragmented like the governments that run it, and therefore diverse. Reflecting the failures of the US health care system, it carries out many more tasks that in other countries are seen as health, especially primary, care.

Mental Health Services in Transition: the United States and the United Kingdom

1992 ◽  
Vol 161 (5) ◽  
pp. 589-593 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Raftery
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
United States ◽  
Mental Health Services ◽  
Health Services ◽  
Community Care ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Past ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
The Us ◽  
The Uk

Mental health services are of interest not only because of the large burden they impose, but also because they have been subject to more change than virtually any other type of health service over the past four decades. Although both the US and UK have taken to ‘deinstitutionalisation’ with enthusiasm, the US has so far proceeded somewhat further down that road than the UK. While both countries face similar problems, the NHS and Community Care Act 1990 may now lead to considerable further changes in the UK.

scholarly journals A new causative agent of epidemic cerebrospinal meningitis. As reported by the Bureau of the Public Health Service

2021 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 91-91
Author(s):  
Z. B.
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
United States ◽  
Health Service ◽  
Causative Agent ◽  
Public Health Service ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Past ◽  
Very High

According to the Bureau of the Public Health Service (Washington), over the past five years, the number of diseases in the United States has been epidemic. cerebrospin. meningitis was very high (numbers not indicated), exceeding the number of diseases in the period since the beginning of the worlds, war.

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