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Article: Epidemics and Public Health
- Article from:
- Dictionary of American History
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2003 The Gale Group Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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EPIDEMICS AND PUBLIC HEALTH
EPIDEMICS AND PUBLIC HEALTH.
In its broadest sense, public health refers to organized efforts to protect and promote the physical and mental well being of a community. These wide-ranging efforts can include such activities as combating epidemic outbreaks of disease, controlling chronic diseases, educating the public about disease prevention and health promotion, screening and vaccinating individuals for diseases, collecting and maintaining statistics about the incidence of diseases, births, deaths, and other vital events, guarding the food and water supplies through inspections and quality standards, and enacting laws and programs to preserve health. A ...