Editorial

Excerpt

Traditionally, the goals of public health have been to curb the spread of infectious diseases and to protect the well-being of the general population. The strategies used to achieve these goals have included surveillance, regulation, diagnostics, research and, more recently, reducing inequalities in health. The first three papers provide evidence of the need for an effective public health system that can deliver services to prevent the potential for risks to health. De Costa et al. discuss the risks associated with an unsuitable provider mix based on their study in Madhya Pradesh province, India. The study concludes that the available public health professionals were unsuited to the needs of the population, particularly in the rural areas and given the priorities in regard to maternal and child health. This may even have contributed to some of the high maternal mortality in the province. The paper by Elmanama and Al-Hindi emphasizes the need for good surveillance in determining the occurrence of drug resistance, in this case of vancomycin-resistant enterococci in Gaza City, Palestine. The authors were able to isolate, from both hospitalized and non-hospitalized subjects, enterococci that had high rates of antibiotic resistance. Burapadaja et al. discuss a cross-sectional study to determine the factors associated with the number of trade names and products of systemic anti-infective medicines available in Thailand. The study concludes that regulation would be a better way to control the market availability of this type of product. …