Climate change poses a major threat to public health. Strategies that address climate change have considerable potential to benefit health and decrease health inequities, yet public health engagement at the intersection of public health, equity, and climate change has been limited. This research seeks to understand the barriers to and opportunities for advancing work at this nexus. We conducted...

ver the past decade, local, state, and national public health agencies in the United States have, to varying degrees, started using electronic disease surveillance systems. Some systems rely on traditional reporting mechanisms, but others use automatically generated electronic clinical and nonclinical health-indicator data to discern unusual disease patterns in the community. In many instances,...

BACKGROUND Early, accurate predictions of the onset of influenza season enable targeted implementation of control efforts. Our objective was to develop a tool to assist public health practitioners, researchers, and clinicians in defining the community-level onset of seasonal influenza epidemics. METHODS Using recent surveillance data on virologically confirmed infections of influenza, we deve...

This article summarizes epidemiological studies of inflammation markers, particularly C-reactive protein, and cardiovascular disease as of early 2002. Gaps in the research and the public health practice implications are also discussed. Although considerable work has been published since this review was completed, the perspectives and issues presented are still useful in evaluating the use of in...

When practitioners take an evidence-based approach to chronic disease prevention, they undertake several important processes (1): 1) making decisions based on the best available scientific and rigorous program evaluation evidence; 2) applying program planning and quality improvement frameworks; 3) engaging the community and stakeholders in assessment and decision making; 4) adapting evidence-ba...

The Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (2015) is a global strategy for addressing disaster risk and resilience that has been ratified by member countries of the United Nations. Its guiding principles emphasise building resilience through inter-sectoral collaboration, as well as partnerships that facilitate community empowerment and address underlying risk factors. Both public health a...

Public health officials frequently face ethical tensions and conflicting obligations when making decisions and managing health departments. Leadership requires an ongoing approach to ethics that focuses on two dimensions of practice: the professional relationships of officials developed over time with their communities and the ethical aspects of day-to-day public health activities. Education an...

A rich and growing body of literature has emerged on ethics in epidemiologic research and public health practice. Recent articles have included conceptual frameworks of public health ethics and overviews of historical developments in the field. Several important topics in public health ethics have also been highlighted. Attention to ethical issues can facilitate the effective planning, implemen...

While most agree that vaccination is one of the most important public health practices, vaccines continue to be underused and undervalued, and vaccine-preventable diseases remain a threat to world health. Perhaps one reason this gap remains is that decision-making generally is made on a vaccine-by-vaccine basis. There has been less attention to the value of vaccination in general. To more clear...

Effective public health practice relies on the availability of public health data sources and assessment tools to convey information to investigators, practitioners, policy makers, and the general public. Emerging communication technologies on the Internet can deliver all components of the "who, what, when, and where" quartet more quickly than ever with a potentially higher level of quality and...