Public health is a mystery to many people, and it is often thought of as some far away thing that doesn’t affect any individual directly, but that’s not true.

Public health underlies the overall health of the community. The main role of public health is prevention: trying to assure people are never affected by an illness or sickness, or preventing the spread to help limit the number of people who get sick. Some may not realize, but public health supports several aspects of day-to-day life.

Public health includes environmental health. Environmental health reaches everyone from swimming pool regulations and mosquito surveillance, to restaurant inspections and ratings. Environmental health makes sure that daycare centers have particular safeguards in place and that proper water-quality rules are in compliance. Another important role of environmental health is mosquito surveillance. Mosquito populations are monitored regularly for several reasons, including public nuisance and transmission of disease. Environmental health is the branch of public health that keeps all of these things under control.

Speaking of the spread of disease, infectious disease is one of the places where public health shines! Not just in treatments or cures for specific diseases, but also the research and surveillance of the diseases currently in the population. Public health surveillance helps to see where diseases are in populations and how they move from place to place. Public health research uses the biology of diseases to figure out how they are passed and what the best pathways are to stop them. This leads to vaccines that people can get before illnesses happen and the improvement of treatments after the fact.

One of the most direct things people think of involving public health are vaccinations. Public health makes sure that our children are safe from diseases, such as measles and mumps, which in history devastated communities. Vaccines, such as the flu vaccine, are important to helping decrease the number of individuals affected by the flu and preventing the spread. There are currently a lot of false claims regarding the flu vaccine; however, the overall benefits of vaccines outweigh the possibility of adverse reactions. In addition, having the majority of a population vaccinated also helps protect the small number of people that, for whatever reason, cannot be vaccinated.

There are a variety of jobs in public health. Positions include: first responders, health educators, scientists, researchers, nutritionists, community planners, social workers, epidemiologists, physicians, nurses, lawyers, occupational health professionals and policy makers. Though these jobs are all very different, they all work together to benefit the entire community. Doctors and nurses have the most visible public health jobs by working with individuals to become healthier during illness. In addition, doctors and nurses also play an important role in keeping people healthier throughout their lives.

Preventive care is just as important as treatment. Health educators work to make sure the general population has the most up-to-date information on health issues. Though “eat right and exercise” is commonly used as advice for a majority of diseases, it’s important to have an educator who is willing to learn about individuals and give advice or help in particular to one’s situation. Public health social workers are also very instrumental in the community. They help connect clients to resources, which could be at any point in the life, from pregnancy, to birth and childhood, to senior citizens.

Beaufort County Public Health Department serves as a leader in the community for understanding and addressing public health concerns. To learn more about what we do in the community, as well as to read the Community Health Assessment and the State of the County Health Report, please visit our website at www.bchd.net. To see the health department in action and talk to various public health staff, please come to our 411 event next Saturday, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. It will be held at the Beaufort County Public Health Department, 1436 Highland Drive, Washington. Rain or shine!

Janell Lewis, MPH, human services planner III, preparedness coordinator of Beaufort County Health Department, can be reached by calling 252-940-5090.