Public Health Issues

What homelessness has got to do with it Emerging challenges facing modern-day public health efforts includes bioterrorism, globalization, urbanization, aging population, HIV/AIDS, food borne pathogens, tuberculosis, malaria, technological advancements, climate change, obesity, and environmental pollution. However, I wish to add homelessness to this long list of 21 st century public health challenges. This is why. Homelessness and housing add up to the cataclysmic surge in HIV/AIDS transmission thereby exposing neighborhoods, communities, counties, states, and nations (Wolitski, Kidder & Fenton, 2007). In the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), approximately 37% of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or unsure-identifying youths and 22% of heterosexual youths reported having spent a night homeless in the past 12 months ( Rice, Fulginiti, Winetrobe, Montoya, Plant, & Kordic, 2012). Because homelessness is an emerging publi...

West Nile: The Dallas Experience The current outbreak of West Nile disease in Dallas, TX calls for re-evaluation of our preparedness to emergency health care events. In this particular incident, expectations were that the public health system will do greater good for the community, and the population under the radar (Moore, Shiell, Noseworthy, Russell, Predy, 2006). Take for example the outbreak of SARS in Toronto, Canada, the preparedness, readiness, and the capacity to contain and respond to this outbreak produced positive outcome. It was a fortunate experience for Canadians. So the question is: did the Dallas Department of Public Health and Environment rely on fortune or were there infrastructures on ground to address the threat of such an emerging infectious disease? Looking outwardly, are there mechanisms in your locality, county, state, and country, continent to prevent and control the outbreak of infectious diseases of any kind? What are the commitments of the feder...