Public health is often considered as neglected because our focus is curative rather than preventive. As saying goes “An apple a day keeps the doctor away”but how many of us do actually eat an apple?
Therefore, public health tends to receive less attention, funding, and visibility compared to hospital-based healthcare.
In many health systems especially in developing nations, priorities are skewed toward treatment rather than prevention.
Public health focuses on disease prevention, health promotion, sanitation, nutrition, vaccination, and social determinants of health—areas whose benefits are long-term and less visible immediately. As a result, political commitment and financial investment in public health infrastructure, workforce, and research are frequently inadequate.For achieving successful Public health goals, approach should be multisectorial and that becomes the challenging part.
The neglect becomes most evident during health emergencies such as pandemics, outbreaks, or environmental crises, when weak surveillance systems, shortages of trained public health professionals, and limited preparedness are exposed. Despite its proven cost-effectiveness and its critical role in improving population health and reducing healthcare burden, public health often remains under-prioritized in policy and planning.
However, in recent global pandemic- COVID-19—it highlighted the indispensable role of public health, leading to renewed recognition and calls for strengthening public health systems. Whether this recognition, translates into sustained investment and action still remains questionable?
MBH/AB