Community genetics or public health genetics?
- Correspondence to: Professor J P Mackenbach Department of Public Health, Erasmus MC, University Medical Centre, Rotterdam, Netherlands; j.mackenbacherasmusmc.nl
The current debate on the terms “public health genetics” and “community genetics” is timely because it provokes thought on the values embodied in the usual methods of public health.
The history of public health is full of words: words defining the area of work, words that are then endlessly redefined or replaced by new words, and old words that come back into fashion again. Think of terms like “social medicine”, “social hygiene”, “community medicine”, “public health” …. The name of this very journal illustrates some of the terminological evolution as it has occurred in Great Britain. It started in 1947 as the British Journal of Social Medicine, at a time when the 19th century term “social medicine” had been revived. “Social medicine” was then perceived to have more positive connotations than the term “public health”, which had become associated with old fashioned hygienic practices. The journal first …
