Anthrax Research paper (Research Paper Sample)

ANTHRAX RESEARCH PAPER
Name:
Institution:
Course:
Date:
Public health sector faces its fair share of risks just like any other field. Its predominant responsibility is to protect the public against all sorts of health hazards, encouraging people about good health behaviors and sensitizing the need for accessing quality health services. However, the possible risks involved in public health are indispensable as well as the negatives and positive consequences of reporting the same to the people and media. Thus, this paper will address possible public health risks and the pros and cons of communicating the situation to the public and media.
Some of the possible public health risks can include resurgent fatal infectious diseases such as cholera. These diseases pose as a chronic challenge to public health since they are antimicrobial resistant (Novick et. al., 2011). This implies that there are no vaccines to prevent people from contracting the disease once they rise. Another possible public health risk is an increasing population density in areas that are too vulnerable to health disasters such as landfills and areas that are susceptible to earthquakes and unstable hillsides (Baker et. al., 2010). The public health sector is bound to face a myriad of challenges in cases where people move to such high-risk regions. This is because many people will be affected once a health disaster rises in those areas since the population is high (Brownson, 2011).
The advantages of communicating possible public health risks are numerous. The first one is educating the public on a particular health hazard and its precautions. This will help people to always take the right preventive measures in case of a disease breakout. Secondly, communicating to the media on the same is important since it enables appropriate dissemination of important information to the public before a disease breakout becomes worse (Scutchfield & Keck, 2003).
However, there are also disadvantages of communicating to the public on possible risks. Firstly, the public can be shaken in tension and even fail to take the recommended measures, hence worsening the situation. Similarly, once the information about a specific risk is communicated to the media, it might exaggerate t...