Evolution of Public Health: From Sanitary Awakening to Global Wellness Challenges - Free Essay

The urge to control the prevalence of diseases has helped shape today's modern public health system. Ever since man realized diseases resulted from various causes and could alternatively be controlled, there has been the development of significant interventions aimed at controlling and containing diseases. Immunization, sanitation, personal health treatment, regulation, and health education as also comprised of new tasks induced into public health as a result of growth and development in scientific knowledge.

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While public health has been advancing over the years, the genesis of the nineteenth century signified a broad adjustment in the evolution of public health. Researchers relate this period as the great sanitary awakening moment, as it was the time by which scientists developed the idea of filth as a major cause of disease prevalence (Nadal). During this time, clinicians engaged the public and listed the importance of observing cleanliness for countering illnesses resulting from dirt. Consistent campaigns from health officials concerning the importance of adhering to sanitation largely influenced people's perceptions regarding their surroundings. The sickness came to be viewed as an indicator of bad environmental and social conditions.

Still, in the nineteenth century, individuals were set to observe maximum cleanliness as a way of promoting both moral and physical health. Strict observation of isolation, piety, and cleanliness encompassed compatible measures instigated to aid the public in either restricting or combating disease. Simultaneously to the occurrence of the events, mental institutions concurrently insisted on moral treatment and cure.

During this period, sanitation also influenced people's understanding of public responsibility for an individual's health. Adherence to measures aimed at protecting the citizen's health was every individual's social responsibility (Nadal). As time elapsed, disease control methods moved from isolating and quarantining of persons to persistent care and cleaning of the environment. Consequently, disease control transposed from retaliating to intermittent outbreaks to adjusting methods for prevention and sustenance.

Earlier methods of quarantine and isolation during the outbreak of particular diseases were evidently scarce in the urban community. Amid the increased population in the urban areas, it was somehow difficult to isolate individuals who dwelled in the slums and as well quarantine people who could not halt working. There was a rampant spread of diseases in urban areas as compared to the low-populated areas during this period of the term (Nadal). Clinicians developed knowledge that diseases were not exclusively imported from other sources but were internally circulated. The industrial transition during the nineteenth century greatly impacted individuals' belief about the occurrence of epidemic disease exclusively in the healthy social order.

While it led to an overload of the labor force and increased crowded places, industrialization prompted a population widely susceptible to sickness and conditions in which the disease was easily propelled to society. Scientists, therefore, identified urbanization as a major cause of disease eruption and transmission due to improper disposal of filth, and waste materials. Both physical and social circumstances that escorted urbanization were regarded as equally accountable for the impairment of pivotal bodily operations and, at sometimes, premature death.

Prior to the nineteenth century, the occurrence of disease was identified as exclusively the predicament of the immortal and the impoverished. During those days, people identified the plague as a disease for the poor. The wealthy individuals in society maintained a significant distance that alienated them from the poor before the nineteenth century. Moments later at the dawn of the nineteenth century, the rich established they could not live far away from the poor due to rapid urbanization. The spread of diseases in the urban areas was not selective but impacted every individual, either rich or poor, and almost all families anticipated their children succumbing to death as a result of smallpox, diphtheria, and the spread of other infectious diseases.

The global wellness economy has been continuously growing, and as of 2018, it was valued at $ 4.85 trillion. The wellness expenditure for the same period was more than half of the annual global health expenditure. The global wellness economy grew by 6.4 percent between 2015 and 2017. This was a significant growth as it was double the growth of the global economy. The wellness industry is among the key contributors to global economic growth as it represents approximately 5.3 percent of the economic output (Global Wellness Institute). The benefits of wellness are not only in the growth of the economy but also in the prevention and reduction of diseases.

Many diseases can be prevented, and successfully treated people make lifestyle adjustments. The prevalence of diseases such as diabetes and heart disease can be reduced if people adopt healthy lifestyle habits that promote health and wellness both in the short and long term. Both physical and emotional wellness are important in promoting people's health. Poor physical well-being is linked to 6 percent of global fatalities. This means that if people focus on wellness, these deaths can be prevented. Physical wellness is attributed to a decline in the risk of developing diseases such as heart disease, breast cancer, and diabetes. Physical exercise reduces the risk of heart disease by 49 percent, diabetes by 35 percent, colorectal cancer by 22 percent, and breast cancer by 75 percent (Harris). The current study has been conducted to establish the relationship between physical activity and mental health. Physical activity has been found effective, especially if it precedes an intervention. Also, physical activity was found effective in boosting mental health for people who did not engage in any physical activity before the intervention.

The health of the people has changed rapidly over the years, and the risk factors have increased. The lifestyle of the people has changed, making them prone to diseases. The lifestyle of the people makes dealing with diseases more complex because the risk factors travel factors and the control of the risk factors is more challenging (Dunk et al. 780). The future healthcare concerns will be the challenge of controlling diseases that spread rapidly around the world. People are moving around the world; hence the diseases inhabiting inhuman beings can spread around the world within a short period of time. For example, COVID-19 disease was able to spread rapidly around the world when it emerged in China. Controlling the disease has become a challenge because people are contracting the disease and taking it around the world. Managing the disease through quarantine is ineffective because people need to work to earn income that they use to meet their needs.

The concerns of the society include increased temperature that gives the pathogens and organisms that cause diseases a good environment to thrive. The increased temperatures in the world have increased the risk factors of diseases spreading. There is another concern is the rise in diseases that do not have a cure making it hard to manage and control the diseases (Dunk et al. 781). Diseases such as HIV/AIDS continue to infect and affect many people around the world and no cure has been discovered yet. Millions of people are dying from the disease. Technology will continue to improve to manage existing and emerging diseases that affect people. The quality of life will continue to improve to ensure that people are less prone to risk factors that cause and spread diseases. The health challenges will be handled depending on how they affect the people.

The strategies to promote or change the current and future concerns in health. The measures include learning to avoid factors that trigger illness, such as smoking, and focusing on avoiding or stopping smoking. It is known that smoking has several health effects on the body (Thompson et al., 2158). Smoking cigarettes cause some diseases, such as lung cancer. It is therefore advisable that persons who smoke should consult a doctor in order for them to be debriefed on the many available ways to help them reduce the amount they smoke, which will help them stop smoking. Smokers should not smoke in public in order to protect non-smokers from inhaling their smoke. The government of America has adopted policies that discourage smoking in public with the notion that second-hand smoke is not only bad but also very harmful. Second-hand smoking increases an individual risk of contracting diseases such as lung cancer and other respiratory problems. Second-hand smoke increases the formation of blood clots, damages heart muscles, and increases heart rates, which increases the individual risks of a heart attack.

The government of America has adopted risk management policies to reduce the risk of chemical release into the atmosphere. The US Environmental Protection Agency analyses the processes carried out in industries that manufacture or use dangerous chemicals in order to develop strategies that reduce the risks of chemical release in the environment and make sure that they are implemented (Thompson et al. 2158). This will reduce the number of chemicals being discharged into the environment, thus reducing risks of occurrence of risks in public health as a result of climatic change. The health impact assessment technique can provide data that can be used in making a decision and recommending specific actions to protect public health.

The healthcare stakeholders should also create awareness of the importance and need for immunization. Immunization is one of the best ways that can be used to protect people and future generations from infectious diseases (Thompson et al., 2158). Vaccination helps people wipe out diseases that are likely to spread now or in the future. Immunization is also important in that it aids in protecting the vulnerable people in a given community. Immunization saves the lives of people because the more the number of people who have been vaccinated in a community, the fewer the number that will be infected, and this will result in the disease being spread in a small area.

Creating awareness of the importance of proper nutrition and carrying out exercises. Diseases that result from malnutrition can be controlled by eating healthy balanced diets. Eating lower-fat food and eating fruits and vegetables every day can be used as a way of preventing chronic diseases (Thompson et al. 2158). Body exercise helps an individual to have a healthy weight rather than being overweight, and being overweight increases individual risks of contracting diseases such as heart disease and cancer. These can be minimized by doing exercise, for example, increasing the amount you walk every day.

The United States has established urban forestry, tree, and landscape programs in most of the cities. Programs for planting trees exist in many large cities and counties in the United States (Thompson et al. 2158). The goals of the programs highlight the benefits of trees, for example, helping to cool the cities and preventing global warming in the cities. Global warming can result from the emission of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, for example, through burning fossil fuels into the atmosphere. Trees suck carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and store it in the tree and in the soil, thus compacting global warming. This helps reduce diseases such as dengue fever, tick-borne encephalitis, and malaria, which result from global warming.