Public Health

What is public health?

Public health is the set of activities undertaken by the government authorities (in partnership with society) to protect, promote and restore the health of the population. It uses a range of strategies that benefit both individuals and the community as a whole.

Protecting health

Health protection aims to prevent environmental factors from harming people’s health. This includes:

• Monitoring and controlling pollution of water, air, soil, and food.
• Identifying health risks and taking preventive action.
• Developing programmes to reduce the impact of disease in different communities.

Promoting health

Health promotion focuses on encouraging healthy lifestyles, both individually and within social groups. This is achieved through health education campaigns, for example through the media or school programmes. It also seeks to create social, economic and environmental conditions that enable people to adopt healthy lifestyles and to participate actively in decisions that affect their well-being.

Some of the health promotion activities include:

• Education: Ensuring free access to basic health education for the entire population.
• Economic policies: Promoting food production, employment and fair wages, among others.
• Housing and public works: Improving living conditions in both urban and rural areas.
• Social justice: Establishing social security systems, fair taxation, and services that support the well-being of the population.

Restoring health

Health restoration refers to the actions necessary to restore health when it has been compromised. These interventions are provided by health services, which operate at two levels: primary care and hospital care.

Access to health care means that everyone can get what they need to take care of their health, be it diagnosis, treatment, rehabilitation, prevention or health promotion. This requires making services available, encouraging their continued use and ensuring the quality of the care provided.