Importance of Public Health Information in India

How Important is Public Health Information in India?

Public health is a strategy to enhance the well-being of the public. Awareness of health disorders, infectious diseases and other disorders in the country's rural and urban segments is highly important. Public health will concern the overall well-being of communities across the nation. Moreover, the organisations and government bodies controlling public health management promote the investigation, management, detection, and prevention of diseases with research and modern approaches.

It also implements strategies to improve people's lifestyles, hygiene habits, and health-related behaviours. Public healthcare organisations mainly focus on the paradigm of infectious diseases and evaluate viable methods to reduce their occurrence across communities.

Therefore, public health information upgradation is necessary, especially in India.

Improvements Focused Under Public Health Organizations Under the public health organisations in India, many major health-related problems are focused on. The organisations primarily focus on rural areas where hygiene practices are lacking. Rural India is highly affected by infectious diseases like TB, malaria and diarrhoea due to unclean surroundings and lack of cleanliness.

According to research, in 2021, there were more than 160 thousand reported malaria cases in India. On the other hand, the focus is also on urban India, as people are facing health problems and surviving challenges due to environmental pollution. Let's discuss the factors concerned with highly improving public health.

Downtrend of Contagious Infection Due to the public health services by the government and non-government organisations, a huge downtrend in infectious diseases was noticed. Since 2014, India has become polio-free.

Being the second most populated country, it was a major challenge, but the massive polio vaccination by the public health services has made it happen. India also became tetanus free in 2015. Now, public health organisations have set strategies to make India Tuberculosis, Malaria and lymphatic filariasis free in the upcoming years.

The programs like Swachh Bharat Abhiyan have accelerated their major steps to reduce the spread of contagious diseases. The public health information shows the improvement of various programs and how quickly they progressed to bring a huge impact on healthy living.

Massive Focus on Prevention As public health organisations successfully prevent communicable diseases, they also face challenges with the emergence of non-communicable diseases. It included cardiovascular diseases, stroke, hypertension, diabetes, and cancer. Therefore, with healthcare information research, public health organisations proceeded forward to reduce non-communicable diseases. Hence, the massive focus was on support, prevention, and awareness.

The country has noticed encouraging progress in the process of prevention. There was a huge increase in the growth of wellness and healthcare centres across the country. The organisations started to think beyond primary health. The preventive measures were undertaken to make people aware of overall wellness. The National Health Mission and the National Rural Health Mission partnered to drive the prevention. They are highly focused on disease control, surveillance and prevention. Hence, public health organisations have brought a huge impact on our healthcare system in India.

Focus on Improved Nutrition With significant improvements, now about 70 % of people in India have access to subsidised food. Everyone needs to have high-nutrition food and follow a balanced diet. But, due to poverty, people were not able to get access to food. India is planning to introduce fortified food via the National Food Security Act to two-thirds of the country to reduce anemia and malnutrition in children.

The healthcare information suggests that a healthy diet will support normal growth, promote healthy pregnancy outcomes, proper child development and healthy ageing.

Moreover, the body weight will be stabilised, and it will further reduce the risk of chronic diseases which are life-threatening.

Usage of Digital Health and AI The Government of India and public health organisations are planning for digital health improvements. The country is still facing challenges due to its health infrastructure. The organisations are taking strategic discussions to leverage digital health and artificial intelligence (AI) in public health services. Further, the implantation of AI to drive social impact will be enhanced.

The public health services are focusing on these factors with their immense efforts to meet all healthcare needs. It further aids in making every individual gets access to treatments. Public health information focuses on most infectious diseases, especially TB. Moreover, research-oriented studies and practices by these services will improve the recurrence of diseases and disorders.