Community health

Community medicine's prime concern is to prevent disease. Communal health responsibilities (in hide: controlling housing standarts and population density, the disposal of domestic and industrial waste, the maintenance of public hygiene, health screening, the elimination of sources of disease and infection.

People everywhere need a constant supply of clean water for drinking, cooking, and washing, and also facilities for the removal of sewage waste. Water is collected from natural resources and stored in reservoirs. It is then purified and distributed for public usage. In some countries one or two parts of fluoride per million are added to water, to help prevent tooth decay. Constant checks are carried out at all stages to see that no contamination occurs.

Children, adults, and animals are vaccinated against disease according to the principle established by the British doctor, Edward Jenner, in 1796. He discovered that people who had been given cowpox were protected against smallpox. Babies are vaccinated against poliomyelitis, and diphtheria and may also be vaccinated against measles and mumps.

Hygienic controls are introduced at all stages of food production. Such controls are obligatory in many countries. To prevent the spread of tuberculosis and brucellosis through daily products, milk is pasteurized by being heated to 72 degrees C. Food-processing factories, hotels, and restaurants are regularly inspected for the presence of rats, mice, and standards of hygiene.

During manufacture, processed foods may be enriched with substances that benefit health, particularly vitamins and, minerals. Iron and other minerals are added to bread and cereal foods, and glucose is sometimes added to drinks and candies. In many countries schoolchildren are tested for tuberculosis. Chest radiography – which may be provided by companies, schools, or local health authorities – is available if necessary to check for tuberculosis, lung cancer, and chronic chest infection. Women are advised to have regular tests to examine their breasts for lumps. Mothers are encouraged to take their babies and children to clinics at special centers, where their development, weight, and rate of growth are noted in order to identify abnormally slow or fast developers.

A balanced diet containing the basic food types – proteins, fats, carbohydrates, vitamins, minerals and fluids – is essential for satisfactory growth development, and health. Research shows that communities with a diet containing a large proportion of fish suffer less from heart disease, high blood pressure. A diet based on rise, or root vegetables is likely to lead to some degree of protein deficiency. A balanced diet is one consisting of small amount of meat, fish, eggs, dairy products, fruit and vegetables, grains, nuts, and seeds.

People living in agricultural societies are often much healthier than those in technologically developed ones. Outdoor activity keeps people strong and supple, whereas a more sedentary lifestyle is more likely to produce joint degeneration and muscular weakness at a relatively early age. Hard manual labor and physical exercises are not necessarily the same thing.

The weel-known forms of exercises to avoid excess weight and keep the heart and blood vessels healthy are swimming, skiing, racket games, dancing, cycling, walking, and jogging. Exercise is an excellent way of combating the ill effects of stress. Meditation is also a good way of miming the mind and inducing a sense of mental and emotional wee being. Laughter, too, is an excellent antidote to stress, and recreational pleasure is as important to health as is physical exercise. The importance of personal hygiene is accepted in nearly all countries of the world. Personal hygiene includes washing the hands after visiting the wash-room, and washing hands before preparing or eating food. There are certain preventive measures that most people can take against disease – and some which depend upon their availability.

To put it into a few words, principal aids to personal health are eating a balanced diet, taking regular exercises, learning to relax, keeping oneself, family, and home as clean as possible, avoiding smoking, drugs, and big quantities of alcohol.