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1 Public health is what we, as a society, do collectively
to assure the conditions for people to be healthy. This requires
that continuing and emerging threats to the health of the public
4 be successfully countered. These threats include immediate
crises, such as the AIDS epidemic; enduring problems, such as
injuries and chronic illnesses; and growing challenges, such as
7 the aging of the populations and the toxic by-products of a
modern economy, transmitted through air, water, soil, or food.
These and many other problems raise in common the need to
10 protect the nation’s health through effective, organized, and
sustained efforts led by the public sector.
Internet: <www.publichealthpolicy.org> (adapted).