Controlling Communicable Disease (understanding Public Health)

UNDERSTANDING PUBLIC HEALTH UNDERSTANDING PUBLIC HEALTH Norman Noah SERIES EDITORS: NICK BLACK & ROSALIND RAINE Controlling Communicable Disease The book examines the challenges facing different countries regarding: ◗ Surveillance ◗ Outbreak investigation ◗ Vaccines ◗ Specific infections including hepatitis, TB, influenza and gastroenteritis Cover design Hybert Design • www.hybertdesign.com www.openup.co.uk Controlling Communicable Disease Norman Noah Norman Noah is Emeritus Professor of Public Health at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. The series is aimed at those studying public health, either by distance learning or more traditional methods, as well as public health practitioners and policy makers. Controlling Communicable Disease Optimism that communicable diseases are no longer a threat is clearly misplaced. New diseases, such as HIV, have appeared and some chronic conditions, such as gastric ulcers, have been shown to be caused by infectious agents. This book is about controlling such diseases, a task that is impossible without surveillance, knowledge of basic microbiology and multi-disciplinary public health teams. There is an increasing global awareness of the inevitable limits of individual health care and of the need to complement such services with effective public health strategies. Understanding Public Health is an innovative series of twenty books, published by Open University Press in collaboration with the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. It provides self-directed learning covering the major issues in public health affecting low, middle and high income countries. UNDERSTANDING PUBLIC HEALTH Controlling Communicable Disease Understanding Public Health Series editors: Nick Black and Rosalind Raine, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Throughout the world, recognition of the importance of public health to sustainable, safe and healthy societies is growing. The achievements of public health in nineteenth-century Europe were for much of the twentieth century overshadowed by advances in personal care, in particular in hospital care. Now, with the dawning of a new century, there is increasing understanding of the inevitable limits of individual health care and of the need to complement such services with effective public health strategies. Major improvements in people’s health will come from controlling communicable diseases, eradicating environmental hazards, improving people’s diets and enhancing the availability and quality of effective health care. To achieve this, every country needs a cadre of knowledgeable public health practitioners with social, political and organizational skills to lead and bring about changes at international, national and local levels. This is one of a series of 20 books that provides a foundation for those wishing to join in and contribute to the twenty-first-century regeneration of public health, helping to put the concerns and perspectives of public health at the heart of policy-making and service provision. While each book stands alone, together they provide a comprehensive account of the three main ai