Assignment #4

In this article Miss Kirk was quarantined in her house because she had been afflicted with leprosy. In this instance she was still allowed to live in the city even though she was afflicted with leprosy. The board of health wanted to move her out of the city into the pest house which was located near the city dumping grounds and was a very unpleasant place. She wanted either to stay quarantined in her house since she had made no effort to violate the quarantine or have a cottage erected for her isolation instead of staying in the pest house. The difference between her quarantine and her isolation is that when quarantined she is still living in the city and if she was isolated she would be moved out of the city to the pest house. The definitions of quarantine and isolation say that quarantine is for a person who has been exposed and isolation is for a person who has been infected.

The board of health has the right to decide when a person should be quarantined as is what happened in this scenario. Miss Kirk agreed with their quarantine and had not argued it or tried to violate it. The reason she argued was because she did not want to have to live in the pest house which she thought was unfair and unreasonable. In her opinion the isolation was a violation of her rights which is why she argued against it. I think that the board was right to quarantine her because her disease was contagious and it was a public health issue which most likely saved many other afflictions. But as stated in the article the quarantine could not last forever and they were looking to isolate her, but it was unreasonable to have her isolated in the pest house which is why the court granted a temporary injunction.

In this case I think that Miss Kirk was right to take her case to the court and argue that it was unjust to have her isolated in the pest house. The Board of Health was right to quarantine her and should have the responsibility of deciding when to isolate and quarantine people. However the Board of Health was not right in the sense that they tried to put her in the pest house which was a vile place and not a place for a person like Miss Kirk. This was an error in protecting the rights of an individual and in my opinion this is more appropriate than if they were to commit an error in protecting the rights of a community. If they had not demanded that Miss Kirk be isolated and kept the quarantine then she could have infected many other individuals and it could have had a much larger impact on the society. It is more important to protect the rights of the society in public health regards because of the catastrophic repercussions it could have if the disease was to get out of hand. If that were to happen then not only would the rights of the community be violated but the rights of many individuals would also be violated when hundreds if not thousands of people had to be quarantined and isolated instead of a single person like Miss Kirk.

Assignment #3

I thought the most surprising statistic on that list was the fact that the average C-sections per live birth was 25.7 which is drastically higher than I had assumed. I would have guessed that the number would have been closer to 5% in the States, but it turns out that the U.S. has an even higher rate of 31.1 C-Sections per live birth. I was also surprised that countries such as Belgium, Norway, and Denmark had the highest ratings in some of the categories. They mostly dominated the medical staff statistics which I thought the U.S. would have done much better in considering they are the country that spends the most money on health related materials.

I thought the least surprising was obviously the U.S. at the top of the obesity statistic. America has been know and is becoming more known for its obese population which is why we clearly dominate this category more than doubling the worldwide average of 15.1%. Japan seemed to be doing very well in this category which was surprising with only 3.4% of an obese population. The U.S. clearly needs to do something about this obesity problem which is happening, but in my opinion not on a large enough scale. Another surprising statistic was that the life expectancy in the U.S. is lower than the worldwide average by .9 years. I would have thought with the U.S. having such medical technology and being well above the worldwide average in many medical averages the life expectancy would be at least above the average.

In my opinion the greatest impact on public health would be the obesity dilemma because it affects such a wide variety of things that eliminating it would mean eliminating countless other problems. Obesity puts a person at a much higher risk of heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, and many other health related problems. Eliminating obesity would eliminate all of these problems and therefore would save hundreds of thousands of lives and millions of dollars. There is nothing healthy about obesity and the problems associated with it are life threatening which makes it one of the deadliest problems in America. Obesity is due to inactivity and poor nutrition. This could be a simple problem to solve if everyone would follow a healthy lifestyle. Daily exercise and a reduction of calories would make an enormous difference in the majority of people and make their overall lives much healthier. This would also help bring the U.S. highest in the life expectancy statistic. My proposal is that we make people aware of the dangers of obesity and also make them aware of all the easy ways that this dilemma can be avoided. With this knowledge people will hopefully make minor changes to their lifestyles that can have a big impact on the overall public health of America.

Assignment #2

This article states that the most important public health achievements have occurred within the last 100 years. These achievements include Vaccination, Motor-vehicle safety, Safer workplaces, Control of infectious diseases, Decline in deaths from coronary heart disease and stroke, Safer and healthier foods, Healthier mothers and babies, Family planning, Fluoridation of drinking water, & Recognition of tobacco use as a health hazard. This list was compiled to show people how much of an impact public health has had over the past century and how much safer it has made our lives. In my opinion Recognition of tobacco use as a health hazard is the most important because it was a rising health problem and now that it has finally been addressed millions of lives are saved each year. This awareness shows people the dangers of using tobacco and prevents many from making the wrong choice and using tobacco. This achievement does not personally affect me, but many of the other ones such as motor-vehicle safety do affect me. A public health advancement that was not mentioned in this list is the chlorination of water which made drinking water safer for everyone in the States and improved sanitation.

Assignment #1

My name is Steven Pope. I am a freshman public health major. I am from St. Louis. I am interested in public health because I am pre-med and this was a major that interested me. In my opinion public health is the act of keeping the general public healthy, safe, and happy. My interests in public health are to use it as a basis for medical school and to be more familiarized with field that coincides with medicine. My initial impression of the first two classes are that it will be a field in which I know little about, but can learn about fast and use in my medical career.