Loading...
Please wait, while we are loading the content...
Similar Documents
Essential public health functions--their place in the health-for-all policy for the 21st century.
| Content Provider | Semantic Scholar |
|---|---|
| Author | Leowski, Jerzy |
| Copyright Year | 1998 |
| Abstract | The 1 01 st Session of the Executive Board continued discussion on the "Health-for-All Policy for the 21st Cen-tury" and proposed for adoption the text which had emerged from extensive consultations at various levels. The resulting declaration certainly reflects the wish of the Executive Board to convey the message that WHO really intends to face new challenges that emerge as a consequence of worldwide changes in the demographic, technological and epidemiological situation. The renewed HFA policy declaration asserts that the health and well-being of people is the ultimate aim of social and economic development. Ethical concepts of equity, solidarity and social justice underpin the new policy. An important step forward is the recognition of essential public health functions as part and parcel of universal access to health care. The spectrum of health care is very wide. It ranges from (a) pure public goods, for example, immunization and other preventive care, health promotion, food handling, sanitation, communicable diseases control, school health, and many other public health functions; (b) diseases due to lifestyles and unhealthy behaviour or special risks, such as smoking, alcohol or drug abuse, pollution of all kinds, injuries and accidents; (c) socio-medical care of the elderly and chronically ill; to (d) diseases of the type "statistical certainties", such as those related to age, gender or poverty; and (e) all other diseases that occur throughout the lifespan of each individual and may be termed "chance occurrences". This wide spectrum of health care services indicates clearly that public health functions play an important part in the provision of health care and that health professionals in determining their current and future obligations have to consider striking a balance between individual and community health care and between curative and preventive, pro-motive and restorative care. In spite of the well-formulated, and globally accepted definition of PHC, many countries, regardless of the structure and organization of their health systems are currently faced with similar challenges in the area of health policy. They face increasing pressures on public resources to address problems of illness and to support the provision of essential public health. These pressures come primarily from the combination of new costly technologies, and new disease patterns reflected in longer life and increasing chronic disease, emergence of new diseases or infections, resurgence of diseases that were once considered well under control, exacerbated in some countries by high rates of population growth. The main causes of … |
| Starting Page | 55 |
| Ending Page | 55 |
| Page Count | 1 |
| File Format | PDF HTM / HTML |
| PubMed reference number | 9675809 |
| Journal | Medline |
| Volume Number | 51 |
| Issue Number | 1 |
| Alternate Webpage(s) | http://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/10665/55727/1/WHSQ_1998_51_n1_p55_eng.pdf |
| Journal | World health statistics quarterly. Rapport trimestriel de statistiques sanitaires mondiales |
| Language | English |
| Access Restriction | Open |
| Content Type | Text |
| Resource Type | Article |
