scholarly journals New law on HIV testing in Botswana: The implications for healthcare professionals

2015 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rofiah O. Sarumi ◽  
Ann E. Strode
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Hiv Testing ◽  
Healthcare Professionals ◽  
International Human Rights ◽  
New Public Health ◽  
Testing Strategies ◽  
New Public ◽  
Human Rights Norms ◽  
Public Health Act

Background: Botswana is one of the countries with the highest HIV prevalence rates in the world. Innovative HIV testing strategies are required to ensure that those infected or at risk of infection become aware of their HIV status and are able to access treatment, care and support. Despite this public health imperative, HIV testing strategies in Botswana will in future be based around the principles in the new Public Health Act (2013). The present article describes the HIV testing norms in the Act, and sets out the strengths and weaknesses of this approach and its implications for healthcare professionals in Botswana.Objectives: To compare international norms on HIV testing with the provisions governing such testing in the new Botswana Public Health Act and to assess the extent to which the new Act meets international human rights norms on HIV testing.Method: A ‘desktop’ review of international human rights norms and those in the Botswana Public Health Act.Conclusion: HIV testing norms in the new Public Health Act in Botswana violate individual rights and will place healthcare workers in a position where they will have to elect between acting lawfully or ethically. Law reform is required in order to ensure that HIV testing achieves the joint goals of public health and human rights.

scholarly journals Municipal public health officials and the Public Health Act

2016 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
Author(s):  
Heidi Lyshol
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Health Workers ◽  
Relevant Literature ◽  
Vocational Teachers ◽  
The Public ◽  
New Public Health ◽  
New Public ◽  
Public Health Officials ◽  
Public Health Workers ◽  
Public Health Act

Introduction: The Norwegian Public Health Act of 2012 was intended to give the municipalities a bigger stake in the health of the population by emphasizing public health at a municipal level. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of the Act on public health officials in the execution of their vocational roles.Research questions: How do public health officials in Norwegian municipalities balance the requirements of the new Public Health Act and what their local leaders, both politicians and bureaucrats, want? How do they use the Act in the performance of their vocational roles? Does this have any relevance for vocational teachers? Method :After a literature search, semi-formal interviews were conducted with 13 municipal public health officials who were also given practical tasks and short questionnaires. The interview transcripts were analysed using Thematic Analysis. This qualitative research technique is defined and described. Discussion and Results: The study shows that the public health workers see the Act as a useful tool and actively use it to leverage the public health field into greater importance. They feel that the Act is empowering, gives them greater pride in their work, and that it helps both them and their superiors to achieve greater understanding of public health workers’ roles in their municipalities. Using the informants’ own words, changes in the municipal public health workers’ roles and vocational self-definitions are discussed in the context of the new Act and selections from the relevant literature. Conclusion: The Public Health Act has changed the roles of municipal public health workers and helped them to further public health by giving them more responsibility and expanded their duty to safeguard health in all policies. The Act is seen as empowering, giving public health professionals pride in their work and greater role understanding, and should be heavily featured in the curriculum of future public health workers.

The origins of health promotion

2018 ◽  
pp. 25-54
Author(s):  
Colin Palfrey
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Health Promotion ◽  
Late Nineteenth Century ◽  
New Public Health ◽  
New Public ◽  
The Social ◽  
Monitoring And Surveillance ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Public Health Act

This chapter examines the origins of health promotion in the UK. It begins with a discussion of diseases in Britain before and during the nineteenth century that made public health a major concern of governments, followed by an analysis of the role of William Farr in establishing a system that recorded the cause of death, along with three important pieces of legislation: Poor Law Amendment Act 1834, Public Health Act 1848, and Public Health Act 1875. The chapter then considers disease monitoring and surveillance before describing Charles Booth's work on poverty in the late nineteenth century, Benjamin Seebohm Rowntree's poverty surveys, and the consequences of the Boer Wars for public health. Finally, it explores key legislation in the twentieth century prior to the establishment of the NHS, the emergence of a new public health, and the impact of health promotion on the social determinants of health.

Human Rights and the New Public Health

1995 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 229 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan Mann
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
New Public Health ◽  
New Public
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