Hypertension and Public Health

Public Health

Public health is termed as the science and art of preventing diseases. The purpose of public health is to analyse a population’s health and the threats toward it. Its objective is to prolong life and promote human health through coordinated labour and informed choices of individuals, organizations, public and private communities and societies. The term public encompasses small group of individuals or an entire village or several continents and Health relates to physical, mental and social well-being of individuals. The aim of public health is to improve the quality of life through prevention and treatment of disease. This includes the surveillance of cases and health indicators and the promotion of healthy lifestyle. Creating awareness towards hand washing and breastfeeding, delivery of vaccinations, prevention of suicides and distribution of condoms to control the spread of sexually transmitted diseases comes under the common public health initiatives. Multidisciplinary teams of public health workers and professionals such as epidemiologists, medical assistants, biostatisticians, public health nurses, midwives or medical microbiologists are required in modern public health practices. In both the developing and the developed countries, public health plays an important role in disease prevention through the efforts made by the local health systems and non-governmental organizations.