Public Health In Action

The United States Department of Health and Human services is the nation level department of public health. Their main purpose is to protect the health of every single American. They create and implement emergencies plans, and distribute this information to other branches. Every state and every city each has a department of public health. Their job is the same as Department of Health and Human Services, but it is on a much smaller scale. These departments deal with a lot of issues such as the problems that arise from natural disasters and biological issues. An example of a biological public health concern would be The H1N1 virus that occurred back in 2009. There are many ways that the HHS and other public health departments control, and assist during time of panic.

When things go wrong that could affect everyone’s well-being, The HHS is on it. In January of 2009, there was an outbreak of salmonella that was linked to peanut butter. The Public health department were the ones that were in charge of the major recall of peanut butter. They made sure that no more American were to be exposed to the salmonella. As previously mentioned, it was the public health department that was in charge of the H1N1 epidemic. That spring, they had to implement the plans for a pandemic. They were many things that needed to be done, one of which was to monitor the disease. Another was to campaign for vaccination of the virus. As far as natural disasters go, The HHS and its branches work hard to clean up and provide an emergency plan for natural disasters. They cannot be prevented but we can still be given the instructions on the best ways to stay safe. When a natural disaster occurs, the Department of Health and Human Services has to provide medical response to the affected areas. If it is bad enough, they will implement a state of evacuation.

It is a huge job to protect the health of a whole nation, but the job gets done. The public Health department proves that they actually do their job and put policies into action. Public health issues occur all the time, but they disappear almost as quickly as they came. Not one person even talks about H1N1 anymore. It came up suddenly and scared millions of people and then, it just did off and now life is normal.