Q-fever deaths in the Netherlands

The number of people killed by Q-fever, a flu-like illness which mainly infects sheep and goats, was at least 24, the Head of the Public Health Institute RIVM in the Netherlands told the television current affairs show Nieuwsuur recently. The previous official death toll stood at 19. The outbreak of Q-fever began in 2007 and led to the slaughter of some 40,000 goats in an effort to get the spread under control. Some 4,000 humans became ill with the disease but that total could be far higher, Roel Coutinho, Head of the RIVM's infectious diseases unit, told the show.

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New Public Health: A Novel Domain

The New Public Health (NPH) is a contemporary application of a broad range of evidence based scientific, technological, and management systems implementing measure to improve the health of individuals and populations. Its main objectives are the political and practical application of lessons learned from past successes and failures in disease control and the promotion of preventive measures to combat existing, evolving and re-emerging health threats and risks. We address present and anticipated health problems in a complex world with great inequalities with specific targets which would help to achieve higher standards of health and a more just and socially responsible distribution of resources. The NPH is a moving target, as the science and practice of public health grow in strength. It is relevant to all countries, developing, transitional, or industrialized, all facing different combinations of epidemiologic, demographic, economic and health systems challenges. It has been conceptualized because of growing interest in the subtle interaction of the environment with people living in affluent societies. It is much more concerned with the interplay between affluence, social well being, education and health, social capital and health. In societies where the basic public health engineering, immunization and food safety are well in place and require surveillance but not reinvention, the new factors – the social, economic and community quality factors – are rising in importance as determinants of health and causes of illness. The challenges of the NPH include cardiovascular diseases and diabetes, healthy food consumption patterns, adequate physical activity, prevention of injury and violence, consumption of alcohol during pregnancy and addictions (tobacco, alcohol and drugs), biopreparedness and preparedness to adapt new advances of research in genetics and nanotechnology. 

The mission of the NPH is to maximize human health and well-being and to help redress societal and global inequities. Inequities in health across the world are part of the challenges of the NPH. These social inequities have been highlighted by public health thinkers since the 19th century and again stressed recently by the WHO Commission on the Social Determinants of Health. 

Contributed by

Dr. D. N. Garg

Former Dean, College of Veterinary Sciences,

Lala Lajpat Rai University of Veterinary & Animal Sciences,

Hisar (Haryana) India

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