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Public Health
What is public health?
The prevention of disease and promotion of health
through organized efforts and education of
society and individuals.
Public health deals with threats to the health of
populations (vs. an individual), which can be as
small as a group of people (10 people in a small
town with an unusual disease) to continents (e.g.
a pandemic such as SARS-severe acute
respiratory syndrome caused by a type of
coronavirus).
More on public health……
Public health is about disease prevention rather
than treatment by surveying emerging cases and
promoting healthy behaviours.
Examples of public health interventions included
hand washing awareness campaigns (e.g. all City
of Ottawa public washrooms have signs),
vaccination programs, anti-smoking initiatives
and the free distribution of condoms to prevent
the spread of STIs.
Public Health Agency of Canada
(PHAC)
PHAC is the government body responsible for
monitoring and protecting the health of
Canadians.
The Agency’s mains goal is to strengthen
Canada’s capacity to protect and improve the
health of Canadians.
PHAC activities
• Health promotion
examples: guidelines for bicycle helmets, bans
on smoking in public buildings, physical
activity guidelines
• Prevention of chronic and infectious diseases
examples: cancer screening guidelines,
promoting lung and cardiovascular health,
management of asthma and diabetes
PHAC activities continued….
• Responding to public health emergencies
continuous surveillance
• guidelines for quarantines during outbreak
(Canadian Quarantine Act and Regulations) –
e.g. forcible TB confinement
• Restricting travel on commercial transport to
infected people
What do you think?
How far should the government go in limiting an
individual’s freedom ‘for the greater good’?
When is it okay to lock patients up?
Blood safety and public health
• In 1984 when AIDS was discovered, the
Canadian Red Cross (the agency that was
responsible for collecting and distributing
blood) did not have blood screening and
testing of collected blood; it also imported
blood from countries with higher incidence of
AIDS (e.g. US).
• More than 1000 Canadians were infected with
HIV through the blood supply.
• 20,000 Canadians were infected with Hepatitis C
(chronic and sometimes fatal liver disease) – and
95 percent of all hemophiliacs
• About 3000 of those infected have died; the
organization was fined $5000
A public health tragedy that could have been
completely avoided…….
Canadian Blood Service
• Took over from Canadian Red Cross;
restructured – now Canadian blood products
are among the safest in the world
• More recent threats to blood supply –
Trypanosoma cruzi (Chagas disease) and the
prion that causes Creutzfeld-Jakob Disease
• Screening by questionnaire, all blood tested
for HIV and hepatitis, syphilis, West Nile
Diabetes and obesity
• Obesity rates have quadrupled since 1985
from about 5 percent to over 20 percent of
the population
• Type II diabetes is on the rise
Obesity
• Obesity is a chronic imbalance between the
energy consumed in food and what is used by
the body – the excess is stored as fat
• Obesity is defined as a BMI over 30 (not
entirely accurate because athletes have high
BMIs – muscle weighs more than fat)
Obesity and health
• Impact on quality of life
• Psychological consequences
• Comparable to cancer in terms of health care
costs
• Type II diabetes
Type II Diabetes
• Also known as late onset diabetes or insulinresistant diabetes
• The body can not properly use insulin, which
allows blood glucose to be taken up by body
cells –result is high blood glucose
• Can cause blindness, heart disease and strokes
• Recent immigrants, especially women and
immigrants of South Asian and African origin
are at higher risk (genetic and environmental
factors)
• About 60,000 new cases every year
Type II Diabetes
What are some public health measures that
could address the needs of high-risk groups?