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For the public health community, the terrorism wreaked on the United States is stunning, but not necessarily surprising. It was a shrieking reminder to us all that desperate and hopeless peoples will follow extremist minorities, that poverty and insecurity, compounded by smoldering pockets of war and the cautious engagement, if any, by the rich world breeds the destruction of September 11. That horror spread its message in nanos...
For the public health community, the terrorism wreaked on the United States is stunning, but not necessarily surprising. It was a shrieking reminder to us all that desperate and hopeless peoples will follow extremist minorities, that poverty and insecurity, compounded by smoldering pockets of war and the cautious engagement, if any, by the rich world breeds the destruction of September 11. That horror spread its message in nanoseconds across the world, evoking cries of alarm and sorrow, life-sacrificing rescues, and loud calls for vengeance and a "crusade" to counter the "jihad", expending more material and human resources for more death, disability, and damage to the lives and futures of thousands, perhaps millions.
Our commitment to the promotion of health and prevention of human and environmental damage calls us to join those whose voices are muffled in the mass media, those who claim another way, those who call for serious peace work and the conditions that can bring it about.
Clearly, the immediate priority in the terror for the public health community was and is to attend to survivors and their families and the protection of environments to avoid further injury and illness to rescuers, securing the necessary infrastructure-air, water, sewage and sanitation, transportation and communication.
Second, we must now-if we ever had doubts after decades of research and experience-work with renewed energy to prevent the anger and hopelessness that fosters extremism and finds solace in its crimes. But not, as many would lead the world, with terrorists' tactics. Rather let us use our own tested tools: working for policies and with organizations that will bring basic humane and healthful living conditions to communities-secure housing, safe environments, food security, education and health care-to those in our own rich countries who are deprived; let us lead, encourage, and support the same efforts in poor countries.
To reallocate national budgets in both rich and poor states, as we are doing, to wage a vaguely targeted war on terrorism will only confirm the claims of the "Great Satan" myth. A shift toward war in the U.S. will mean further reductions in already meager funds for social concerns (because the new money is not likely to be drawn from a repeal of recent tax cuts), diminishing the already threadbare hopes of 37 million Americans living in poverty, including one in five children, the 1 in 3 families facing housing hardship, the 44 million without health insurance. These are the grounds of anger and hopelessness.
Third on a public health agenda to eradicate the allure of terrorism is to use 21st century information technology to join the globalizing net of organizations which seek to humanize state policies and world markets, to end the rush to commodify everything from genes to environments. Locally and globally, we must raise the message persistently to publics, the media, and policymakers: that there can be no peace without social justice, the fair sharing of the goods and goodness that we have. Let us give leaders in communities and those in intergovernmental forums the political courage to dissent from a war regime and support social justice and criminal justice under law. Every move we can make, everywhere, toward a just society nourishes hope, calms rage, helps ensure a peaceable future for us all.
Nancy Milio
Professor of Nursing
Professor of Health Policy & Administration,
School of Public Health
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
School of Nursing
Carrington Hall 7460
Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA
It is a very short note but I feel the need to write it. It has been very interesting to read this new article written by Nancy Krieger. I have been following and reading all her articles. We at ALAMES (Asociación Latino Americana de Medicina Social) started following her papers when she first published the "The web of causation: has anyone seen the spider?". Many Latin American authors were writing about these c...
It is a very short note but I feel the need to write it. It has been very interesting to read this new article written by Nancy Krieger. I have been following and reading all her articles. We at ALAMES (Asociación Latino Americana de Medicina Social) started following her papers when she first published the "The web of causation: has anyone seen the spider?". Many Latin American authors were writing about these concepts and thoughts more than 20 years ago.
We were very happy to read that someone in the Northern hemisphere had similar thoughts and concept development. There are other authors like Asa Cristina Laurel, today the Secretary of Health of the State of México; María Urbaneja Ministry of Health of Venezuela; Jaime Breilh; and Edmundo Granda. Breilh has published many articles and books - some in conjunction with Granda - where he has done an exhaustive and brilliant review of the epistemology and politics of the epidemiology. He and his colleague both work together in the CEAS (Centro de Estudios y Asesoría en Salud, Quito Ecuador). jbreilh@ceas.med.ec.
He discusses the inherent social characteristic of epidemiology. Moreover, he suggests a new name for epidemiology to make it different of the classic causative- positivism based epidemiology. The new term/name is “Epidemilogía Crítica”/Critical Epidemiology. I suggest including this term in the glossary proposed by M. Krieger.
We thank Mr. Barnett for his interest in our article, even
though his comments suggest he has not read it. Following
there are some notes on Barnett’s comments:
We have never received funds from the beverage industry, either for this research or for any of the several studies we have done on the relationship between alcohol and health.
Contrary to Barnett’s comments, we finished our article
a...
We thank Mr. Barnett for his interest in our article, even
though his comments suggest he has not read it. Following
there are some notes on Barnett’s comments:
We have never received funds from the beverage industry, either for this research or for any of the several studies we have done on the relationship between alcohol and health.
Contrary to Barnett’s comments, we finished our article
alerting against undue use of our research findings. In
particular, we stated in the final paragraph of the
manuscript: "As to the study’s practical implications, the
negative association between alcohol and suboptimal
health should not be used to promote even the moderate
consumption of alcoholic beverages".
Clinical advice and public policy on alcohol consumption is
a complex topic, which should be based on scientific
evidence (of which our article is just one small piece),
resources, and values or preferences of the people. Posing
the debate in visceral rather than rational terms (those
that integrates the above components of decision
making), as Mr. Barnett does, is getting out of the way for
evidence-oriented public policy.
,
I trust peers in the fields of Epidemiology and
Community Health will have ample opportunity to
scrutinize the hapless "study" from Spain published in
your journal this week as reported on BBC News web site
and I wish to foreshadow their likely findings of the
so-called scientists whose study linked more and more
alcohol consumption with "feeling healthier" as
laughable and very unscientific.
,
I trust peers in the fields of Epidemiology and
Community Health will have ample opportunity to
scrutinize the hapless "study" from Spain published in
your journal this week as reported on BBC News web site
and I wish to foreshadow their likely findings of the
so-called scientists whose study linked more and more
alcohol consumption with "feeling healthier" as
laughable and very unscientific.
I feel it is a great disservice to the global
community as well as to the goal of health education,
the penultimate responsibility of the public health
professional, to propose that indiscriminate and over
indulgence in alcoholic beverages could ever possibly
be linked to "healthier" anything.
Every 5th grade student knows alcohol is a poison and
will damage cells and organs upon entering the body.
Detrimental effects on the brain and nervous system
are well established. The fact that the body can
recover and continue to tolerate intake of the poison
and that the physical & psychological effects of
depression are masked by temporary "good" feelings is
equally well known. However, to report a link of a healthier outcome to
alcohol consumption and an even healthier outcome to increased consumption
serves only the financial interest of the beverage industry and may lull
the demented drinkers into a further fantasy that their drinking habit is
not only not a detriment to their health, but may some how improve their
health.
Certainly any sober person can use empirical evidence
to discredit that notion. If simple facts of reality
are going to be leapfrogged over just to play in the
scientists’ sandbox of childish notions, certainly less
important and less worthy publications can be used in
this way to publish that nonsense rather than risk
tainting the reputation of this fine journal.
This article is a concise and comprehensive glossary in the basic concept of health care. It
is an asset to teaching classes of public health. However, in this developing country we are
curious about your term "Primary Care". We are all working in a two million population catchment area for our services; the "Service Area" of the Institute. We named these the "Teaching Districts" of BP Koirala Institute...
This article is a concise and comprehensive glossary in the basic concept of health care. It
is an asset to teaching classes of public health. However, in this developing country we are
curious about your term "Primary Care". We are all working in a two million population catchment area for our services; the "Service Area" of the Institute. We named these the "Teaching Districts" of BP Koirala Institute of Health Sciences. In the
last seven years as trained
doctors, practising in population medicine, we have realized that there is no grading of care. Care has no level, either primary or secondary or tertiary. It is confusing for those who never worked with a population but still define its term. For us, illness is a process that needs every level of care at all times. The political definition of health care as "Primary
Health care" Almaata 78
was so convenient to all. Some forms of compromised care or homeopathic medicine in modern medicine are termed primary care. Do we, as health
professionals, understand what primary care is when some one is sick?
What is the future of Public Health? I am working in an Health
Institution which produces doctors and other health
professionals. As a doctor trained in Public Health, I find it challenging to impart to students how this discipline is going to help improve the public's health in our situation.
Water:- donation or loan needed to find the source and build a distribution system.
What is the future of Public Health? I am working in an Health
Institution which produces doctors and other health
professionals. As a doctor trained in Public Health, I find it challenging to impart to students how this discipline is going to help improve the public's health in our situation.
Water:- donation or loan needed to find the source and build a distribution system.
Air:- heavily poluted by non-regulated industries and low quality fuel.
Food:- dependency on imports has increased five times, qualities of dumped food is the way of survival.
Civic Norm:- Political instability in a country where there is a migration from rural hilly areas
to urban areas in search of jobs without any planning. This has created chaos, pushing
all saleable human resources out of the country.
Most of the time, the students discuss whether they will be able to help
people. This article is thought provoking and should prompt health
professionals to look inside themselves. Where lies the problem in Public Health?
Global surveillance in chronic or acute infectious are really important
issues.Working in the area of pidemiology in one of the least developed
country, one important issue that remains for me is to strengthen the system to
collect, analyse
and report data scientifically, so that magnitude can be measured
quantitatively,rather than the subjective impressions of professionals.
Global surveillance in chronic or acute infectious are really important
issues.Working in the area of pidemiology in one of the least developed
country, one important issue that remains for me is to strengthen the system to
collect, analyse
and report data scientifically, so that magnitude can be measured
quantitatively,rather than the subjective impressions of professionals.
Do we have enough infrastructures for a surveillance system?
We are planning a 'patch up' approach for example with polio.What will
happen after five years, once the project is over in a country
where not a single laboratory is available to test the polio
virus be it from the wild or vaccine initiated? Our country's capacity to take the initiative
is decreasing. A vertical approach is prominent
and one more silent epidemic of chronic diseases
will not be tackled the way it should be, because there is no
institution to tackle such a problem. Identifying the problem is one step
but to build resources so that it can continue on its own is another. A surveillance system can not be
isolated without improving the overall health system.
It is a very short note but I feel the need to write it. It has been very interesting to read this new article written by Nancy Krieger. I have been following and reading all her articles. We at ALAMES (Asociación Latino Americana de Medicina Social) started following her papers when she first published the "The web of causation: has anyone seen the spider?". Many Latin American authors were writing about these c...
We thank Mr. Barnett for his interest in our article, even though his comments suggest he has not read it. Following there are some notes on Barnett’s comments:
We have never received funds from the beverage industry, either for this research or for any of the several studies we have done on the relationship between alcohol and health.
Contrary to Barnett’s comments, we finished our article a...
Dear Editor
, I trust peers in the fields of Epidemiology and Community Health will have ample opportunity to scrutinize the hapless "study" from Spain published in your journal this week as reported on BBC News web site and I wish to foreshadow their likely findings of the so-called scientists whose study linked more and more alcohol consumption with "feeling healthier" as laughable and very unscientific.
...Dear Editor,
This article is a concise and comprehensive glossary in the basic concept of health care. It is an asset to teaching classes of public health. However, in this developing country we are curious about your term "Primary Care". We are all working in a two million population catchment area for our services; the "Service Area" of the Institute. We named these the "Teaching Districts" of BP Koirala Institute...
Dear Editor,
What is the future of Public Health? I am working in an Health Institution which produces doctors and other health professionals. As a doctor trained in Public Health, I find it challenging to impart to students how this discipline is going to help improve the public's health in our situation.
Water:- donation or loan needed to find the source and build a distribution system.
Air:- heavil...
Dear Editor,
Global surveillance in chronic or acute infectious are really important issues.Working in the area of pidemiology in one of the least developed country, one important issue that remains for me is to strengthen the system to collect, analyse and report data scientifically, so that magnitude can be measured quantitatively,rather than the subjective impressions of professionals.
Do we have enough in...
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