NORTH SOUTH UNIVERSITY

DEPARTMENT OF BBA
ASSIGNMENT 01

SUBMITTED TO
FACULTY NAME: Dr. Nilufar Kamorez Jaha
DEPARTMENT: Public Health
SUBMITTED BY
STUDENT NAME: Md. Abdullah Al Mamun
STUDENT ID: 1631489030
COURSE NAME: PBH101
SECTION: 32

ASSIGNMENT TOPIC
Define Public Health and mention the component of PHC. Prevention of health
problem and controls.

Definition of Public Health:

Public Health is defined as the science of protecting the safety and improving the health of
communities through education, policy making and research for disease and injury prevention.
The definition of public health is different for every person. Whether you like to crunch
numbers, conduct laboratory or field research, formulate policy, or work directly with people to
help improve their health, there is a place for you in the field of public health. Being a public
health professional enables you to work around the world, address health problems of
communities as a whole, and influence policies that affect the health of societies.

Public health involves the application of many different disciplines:

 Biology
 Anthropology
 Public policy
 Mathematics
 Engineering
 Education
 Psychology
 Computer science
 Sociology
 Medicine
 Business
 and others

Public Health is also define as art of science that prolonging healthy life and promoting health
efficiency through organized community and country efforts.
Overall, public health is concerned with protecting the health of entire populations. These
populations can be as small as a local neighbourhood, or as big as an entire country or region of
the world.

Component of Primary Health Care (PHC):

In 1978, the World Health Organization (WHO) adopted the Declaration of Alma-Ata. The
declaration, named for the host city, Almaty, Kazakhstan (formerly known as Alma-Ata),
outlined the organization's stance towards health care made available for all people in the world.
The declaration also defined eight essential components of primary health care, which helped
outline a means of providing health care globally.

PHC consists of at least 8 elements:

1. Health Education: It is the first component of PHC concerning prevailing health

problems and the methods of preventing and controlling them. By educating the public on
the prevention and control of health problems, and encouraging participation, the World
Health Organization works to keep disease from spreading on a personal level.
2. Nutrition: Promotion of food supply and proper nutrition. Nutrition is another essential
component of health care. WHO works to prevent malnutrition and starvation and to
prevent many diseases and afflictions.
3. Safe water and basic sanitation: A supply of clean, safe drinking water, and basic
sanitation measures regarding trash, sewage and water cleanliness can significantly
improve the health of a population, reducing and even eliminating many preventable
diseases.
4. Maternal and child health care, including family planning: Ensuring comprehensive
and adequate health care to children and to mothers, both expecting and otherwise, is
another essential element of primary health care. By caring for those who are at the
greatest risk of health problems, WHO helps future generations have a chance to thrive
and contribute to globally. Sometimes, care for these individuals involves adequate
counseling on family planning and safe sex.
5. Immunization: By administering global immunizations, WHO works to wipe out major
infectious diseases, greatly improving overall health globally.
6. Locally endemic disease: Prevention and control of local diseases is critical to
promoting primary health care in a population. Many diseases vary based on location.
Taking these diseases into account and initiating measures to prevent them are key
factors in efforts to reduce infection rates.
7. Treatment of common disease and injuries: Another important component of primary
health care is access to appropriate medical care for the treatment of diseases and injuries.
By treating disease and injury right away, caregivers can help avoid complications and
the expense of later, more extensive, medical treatment.
8. Provision of essential drugs: By providing essential drugs to those who need them, such
as antibiotics to those with infections, caregivers can help prevent disease from
escalating. This makes the community safer, as there is less chance for diseases to be
passed along. Nowadays the government are providing free antibiotics and the vitamin
tablets to the people for free. Besides this the nongovernment organizations are providing
free medical checkup and medicine to the people. It is noticed that the people from rural
area are not very serious about the essential drugs. They always try to escape the
medicine. Although there are many problems, they should take then regularly.

Prevention of Health problem and control:

Prevention is very important to defend any kind major health problem. By preventing the
problems it is possible to reduce death as well. Health scientists are trying to find different way
to solve health related problems and to control them. Health promotion and disease prevention
programs focus on keeping people healthy. Health promotion engages and empowers individuals
and communities to engage in healthy behaviors, and make changes that reduce the risk of
developing chronic diseases and other morbidities. Define by World Health Organization
(WHO).

Primary, secondary and tertiary prevention are three terms that map out the range of
interventions available to health experts.

Prevention includes a wide range of activities — known as “interventions” — aimed at reducing

risks or threats to health. We may have heard researchers and health experts talk about three
categories of prevention: primary, secondary and tertiary.

Primary prevention aims to prevent disease or injury before it ever occurs. This is done by
preventing exposures to hazards that cause disease or injury, altering unhealthy or unsafe
behaviours that can lead to disease or injury, and increasing resistance to disease or injury should
exposure occur. Examples include:

 legislation and enforcement to ban or control the use of hazardous products (e.g.
asbestos) or to mandate safe and healthy practices (e.g. use of seatbelts and bike helmets)
 education about healthy and safe habits (e.g. eating well, exercising regularly, not
smoking)
 immunization against infectious diseases.

Secondary prevention aims to reduce the impact of a disease or injury that has already
occurred. This is done by detecting and treating disease or injury as soon as possible to halt or
slow its progress, encouraging personal strategies to prevent injury or recurrence, and
implementing programs to return people to their original health and function to prevent long-
term problems. Examples include:

 regular exams and screening tests to detect disease in its earliest stages (e.g.
mammograms to detect breast cancer)
 daily, low-dose aspirins and/or diet and exercise programs to prevent further heart attacks
or strokes
 suitably modified work so injured or ill workers can return safely to their jobs.

Tertiary prevention aims to soften the impact of an one going illness or injury that has lasting
effects. This is done by helping people manage long-term, often-complex health problems and
injuries (e.g. chronic diseases, permanent impairments) in order to improve as much as possible
their ability to function, their quality of life and their life expectancy. Examples include:
  cardiac or stroke rehabilitation programs, chronic disease management programs (e.g. for
diabetes, arthritis, depression, etc.)
 support groups that allow members to share strategies for living well
 vocational rehabilitation programs to retrain workers for new jobs when they have
recovered as much as possible.

Once a disease has developed and has been treated in its acute clinical phase, tertiary prevention
seeks to soften the impact caused by the disease on the patient’s function, longevity, and quality
of life. Examples include cardiac rehabilitation following a myocardial infarction, seeking to
alter behaviours to reduce the likelihood of a reinfaction. Tertiary prevention can include
modifying risk factors, such as assisting a cardiac patient to lose weight, or making
environmental modifications to reduce an asthmatic patient’s exposure to allergens. In the
example of Catherine Richards, it might include ensuring regular check-ups to monitor her
condition, including eye exams to check for possible adverse outcomes of her diabetes. Where
the condition is not reversible, tertiary prevention focuses on rehabilitation, assisting the patient
to accommodate to his disability. For reversible conditions, such as many types of heart disease,
tertiary prevention will reduce the population prevalence, whereas for incurable conditions it
may increase prevalence if it prolongs survival. The key goal for tertiary prevention is to enhance
quality of life.

The End