Celebrating public health

This week celebrates National Public Health Week and World Health Day, highlighting the importance of initiatives to better the health of the USA, and the need to strengthen food safety systems on a global level.

It’s an exciting week for Public Health, with 2015 celebrating APHA’s 20th anniversary for coordinating National Public Health Week (6-11 April). Providing the opportunity for the public health community to come together, the goal this year is to make the U.S. the “healthiest nation in one generation” by 2030.

According to the United Nations, although the U.S. spends more per capita on healthcare than any other nation in the world, U.S. residents have a life expectancy of 77.9 years, which is lower than 28 other countries.

This week’s themes focus on making smart lifestyle choices to prevent cardiovascular diseases, ensuring health equity across all communities, improving access to health care and preventive services, encouraging collaborations between agencies and providers and ensuring infrastructures are in place to improve population health.

Today, we also commemorate World Health Day which marks the anniversary of the founding of the World Health Organization. With unsafe food linked to the deaths of an estimated 2 million people annually, the WHO is promoting efforts today to improve food safety all along the food production chain.

WHO’s Five keys to safer food offer practical guidance to vendors and consumers for handling and preparing food:

  • Key 1: Keep clean
  • Key 2: Separate raw and cooked food
  • Key 3: Cook food thoroughly
  • Key 4: Keep food at safe temperatures
  • Key 5: Use safe water and raw materials.

Take today as an opportunity to learn about the importance of food safety and enrich your knowledge on public health issues by keeping up to date with the latest research published in BMC Public Health.

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