The Balance between Public and Private Health

1 . Provide support for either Chadwick or Farr in the `Could You Starve to Death in England in 1839 ? The Chadwick-Farr Controversy and the Loss of the Social in Public Health` article

The beauty of the philosophical dilemma between Chadwick and Farr is that both took the stand which was in contradiction to what their role was . Chadwick looked at the death from medical perspective while Farr elaborated it from administrative perspective . Farr to a larger extent was correct and his theory founded the base of our present day healthcare system where

the stress is on prevention rather than spending all the energy on cure (Whitehead 2002

According to Farr preventing a disease through providing food and better sanitation is comparatively easier than detecting all the causes of deaths as there isn 't sufficient number of qualified people to provide details of exact causes of deaths

The core reasons identified by Farr were living conditions and personal history . According to him the immunes of people to the living conditions vary according to their personal history but that doesn 't completely protect them from the effects of the disease . Emphasizing on this point Farr explained that medical diagnosis has far greater importance in therapy and prognosis rather than solving etiological questions (Christopher Hamlin 1995 . Based on this very observation , the large amount spent today on public hygiene and sanitation can be justified Secondly as we know now that virus and bacteria do get immune to various medications so preventing the disease is far more economical than curing a disease

2 . Remaining consistent with your stance from the Chadwick-Farr article provide your opinion of the recommendations in the `When Pestilence Prevails .Physician Responsibilities in Epidemics .` article

As Farr emphasized , that diseases are result of living conditions and individual differences so even in the case of an epidemic different people will have different surviving chances . Being a physician the person is more aware of what is going around so more likely to be prepared in terms how to protect himself /herself . If he /she can 't protect himself /herself then they are of no good to the survival endeavors (Samuel J . Huber Matthew K . Wynia 2004

Physicians when they pass out from the medical schools take an oath to do their best to protect other fellow human being from diseases . SARS disease may have posed real safety threats to security workers all across the world but not tackling it may lead to an even bigger epidemic . Just imagine a respiratory disease like SARS starting approaching tipping point like AIDS in Africa . Not only it will be impossible to contain it but it also will be difficult to cure

3 . Explain any changes in your perspective between your comments about the Chadwick and Farr article , and you opinion of the Pestilence article . For example , is your perspective consistent or did it change as a reflection of the era (1839 vs . 2004

In real sense people may perceive that perspectives have changed over the...