Medical Resources: Complete Guide to Public Health Resources

Public Health is the field of health concerned with preventing the spread of infections, illnesses, and disease. It also looks hazards in the environment and how they can create health problems for a community. Public health officials manage immunizations and disseminate information on how citizens can protect themselves from epidemics whether at home or abroad. They also collect data on disease to improve future treatment and vaccination.

Immunization
Immunizations can prevent the rapid spread of diseases. Many vaccines exist to protect the public against illnesses like chicken pox, measles, and the flu. Most schools require children to be immunized on a certain schedule in order to continue enrollment. Research is being done daily to create new vaccines for sicknesses such as pneumonia.

  • What is Immunization?: This website provides the basic details of how immunization works and why it is considered to be beneficial.
  • Available Vaccines: This Centers for Disease website gives information on all available vaccines and the diseases they prevent.
  • Immunization Schedule for Children: This site offers a guide on what immunizations children should have and when. 
  • Immunization Recommendations for Adults: This website, which includes a color-coded chart, offers a schedule for adult vaccinations along with background information.
  • The Safety of Vaccines: This U.S. Food & Drug Administration page answers questions on the safety of the popular ingredient Thimerosal , which contains small quantities of mercury.
  • The History of Vaccines: This website recounts the history of vaccines, starting in 1796 with a smallpox vaccination.
  • Future Vaccines: This website looks at the potential of creating new vaccines to prevent pneumonia.
  • Four Categories of Vaccines: In the third section of this webpage on virology, the section “Types of Vaccines” explains the differences among killed, DNA, sub-unit, and attenuated vaccines.
  • Getting Immunized for Traveling: This webpage gives tips on how to be properly vaccinated for international travel.

Epidemiology
Epidemiology is the exploration, study, and research of disease. Epidemiologists look for the root causes of death and what demographics are most affected and susceptible. They study factors contributing to diseases, such as environmental toxins. Findings are generally published to guide future treatment of disease.

  • Epidemiology Basics: This website offers a basic primer on epidemiology.
  • Clinical Epidemiology: Site explains how epidemiology is used in clinical medicine.
  • Cancer Epidemiology: This site looks at how epidemiology hunts for factors causing cancer.
  • Environmental Epidemiology: This webpage specifically looks at the hazard of PCBs in the environment and their effect on health.
  • Pediatric Epidemiology: This page lists identifies concerns in the study of pediatric epidemiology. Includes studies on leukemia in children and the impact of drugs on childhood obesity.
  • Reproductive Epidemiology: The website explore the study of diseases that that affect sexual reproduction:
  • Occupational Epidemiology: Occupational epidemiology looks at how workers can be exposed to disease through materials such as asbestos.
  • National Investigators: The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences employs investigators to constantly research a range of diseases and the factors linked to them.
  • State Government Epidemiologists: Most states, like North Carolina, use epidemiologists to consult on health issues affecting particular communities.

Biostatistics
Biostatistics offers a numerical way to analyze disease and its impact on living creatures. While real life epidemics and occurrences provide data, experimentation is mostly the anchor for biostatistics . Data is then collected and analyzed from experiments. Findings often shape the design of new medicine.

Public Health Issues in History
Throughout history mankind has been threatened with widespread death and annihilation through disease. During the Middle Ages the Bubonic Plaque killed 60 percent of the people living in Europe. In the 1400s, widespread syphilis for which there was no cure caused panic in Naples and around the world; it was known as the Great Pox. Most recently, the swine flu raised fear that a new super-virulent form of the flu had emerged.

  • The Black Death: A look at the Black Plague is included on this site.
  • The Great Pox: A look back at the syphilis plague.
  • Cholera Epidemic: In the 1800s, Cholera killed over 150,000 people.
  • Small Pox: This ancient plaque is over 3,000 years old and has never had a cure, although a vaccine is available.
  • Polio Epidemic: The viral disease polio caused several major epidemics after the end of the Second World War
  • 1918 Flu Epidemic: A look back at a flu epidemic that allegedly killed nearly 40 million people.
  • H1N1 Pandemic Flu: This website looks at the spread of the Swine Flu in 2009.
  • The Alar Scare: In the 1990s, there were fears that chemicals in fruit and vegetable pesticides would cause widespread poisoning.