Researchers at Michigan State University offer more evidence that the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ annual estimate of occupational injury and illnesses grossly misses the mark on the actual count of work-related health harm. How many more studies are needed before the Secretary of Labor addresses the problem?
Just a few years ago in Butte County, Calif., it wasn’t unusual for public health workers to administer more than 1,000 free HIV tests every year. In true public health fashion, they’d bring screening services to the people, setting up in neighborhoods, parks and bars, at special community events and visiting the local drug treatment facility and jail. The goal was prevention and education, and no one got turned away.
Behaviors are major contributors to our health status, but a tiny fraction of US health spending goes to encouraging healthy behaviors like physical activity. The Bipartisan Policy Center has some recommendations for increasing physical activity, including policy changes that make it easier for people to play and get around actively.
House Republicans’ plan to raid the Prevention and Public Health Fund for money to prevent an increase in the student-loan interest rate is only the latest move to siphon off funds intended for public-health investments.
A Freakonomics podcast gives two very different examples of how knowing what’s best doesn’t always translate to healthy behavior — and demonstrates how to apply a public health perspective to challenging problems.
Today is World Malaria Day, and the World Health Organization has launched a new initiative, dubbed T3: Test, Treat, Track. It urges countries where malaria is endemic to test every suspected malaria case, treat every confirmed case with anti-malarial medicine, and track the disease with “timely and accurate surveillance systems.” The good news is that […]
This week (April 2-8) is National Public Health Week. As Kim Krisberg described a couple of weeks ago, localities and groups across the country are recognizing it with a wide range of activities, from a health film festival to a safe sex carnival to a 1950s-themed health fair featuring the jitterbug and hula hoops. (Go […]
by Kim Krisberg A couple weeks ago on the southern-most tip of the continental United States in Key West, nearly 70 residents gathered at a town hall meeting to talk about mosquitoes. And not just any mosquito. A special, genetically modified mosquito designed to protect people’s health. While the modified mosquito has yet to make […]
by Kim Krisberg Amanda DeSimpelare was always interested in science, but she was wary of what a career in the field would be like. She pictured herself being tucked away in a laboratory all day. It wasn’t too appealing. Then, in the summer of 2010, she discovered public health. “When I pictured science before, I […]
by Kim Krisberg It only takes a few minutes of talking with Scott Becker to realize just how passionate he is about public health. In fact, his enthusiasm is contagious. Maybe that’s why he isn’t mincing his words. “What keeps me up at night is how we are going to maintain the core and critical […]