Public Health Research Introduced
The field of public health research is very broad, but everything these researchers do is related to public health. There are many areas of this research that come to the forefront time and time again, even as technology advances. Areas that continue to see focus are the use of diet and exercise as a means of disease prevention, the prevention of the building of antimicrobial resistance, the prevention of airborne disease spreading, and bioterrorism prevention.
Public health research is focused on the finding of ways to promote public health. It has a lot in common with clinical research, except that it does not focus on individual patient treatment. Rather, it focuses on disease prevention in the population as a whole. Hundreds of years ago, obesity, heart disease, and diabetes were insignificant as far as their impact on survival, but times have changed. Public health research is trying to find out how dietary and lifestyle changes can help humans to be healthier and to live longer. Public health research can include the prevention of the development of these chronic diseases; a good example is the anti-tobacco movement.
When penicillin was first made, it was seen as a miracle. Most bacteria had never been exposed to it, so it worked on almost all kinds of disease. However, over time, germs became resistant to it. This same scenario is being seen with many antimicrobial drugs that are meant to kill fungi, bacteria, viruses and other organisms. Antimicrobial resistance is leading to the resurgence of previously-eradicated diseases like TB; public health policies against the overprescription of antivirals and antibiotics are attempting to stop it.
The threat of swine and bird flue has made it abundantly clear that public health research into pathogens is extremely important. Before the advent of public health initiatives, cholera and the plague decimated Europe, but now, public health research is finding ways to contain the spread of diseases like this. Potential pandemics can be stopped before they even happen. Another arm of public health research is focused on the effects of bioterrorism, and the identification and isolation of pathogens like anthrax. These researchers come up with methods of inoculating the population; the smallpox vaccine was the first successful one. Hopefully, public health research will one day allow the entire world population to be protected against bioterrorism.