Most people don't really know what public health is and honestly I didn't really know what it was until a little while ago.
A very literal definition of public health is "the science of protecting and improving the health of communities through education, promotion of healthy lifestyles, and research for disease and injury prevention."
Public health is about protecting and promoting the health of a community. Communities can be any size. A local neighborhood, a state, a nation, or the world.
Sometimes people confuse public health with the medical profession in general. While public health workers often work with physicians they are doing very different jobs. Physicians are concerned with the health of an individual while public health officials are concerned with the health of the population. For example, a doctor will treat a patient for Malaria while the public health officials will try to find a way to get rid of Malaria.
Hopefully that makes sense and kind of clears up what public health is. It is a very broad field and encompasses so many different aspects that a definition can be hard to understand. Really anything you think might be public health, probably is.
