Public health in Central and Eastern Europe: research, education and practice
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EDITORIAL
Public health in Central and Eastern Europe: research, education and practice Gabriel Gulis1 Received: 11 September 2020 / Accepted: 12 September 2020 Ó Swiss School of Public Health (SSPH+) 2020
This volume of International Journal of Public Health on public health in Central and Eastern Europe cannot be more timely. I am saying this despite the fact that you will find no single paper discussing COVID-19! The timeliness is hidden rather in the subject, public health at the time, when most people around the World suddenly became public health or epidemiology experts. Atul Gavande, a surgeon, public health researcher and writer recently, as results of the COVID-19 pandemic, called for building up a strong public health system in the USA and balancing funding between clinical medicine and public health (Gavande 2020). I believe, there is no better place in the World to discuss these issues as Central–Eastern Europe, and this fact brings the timeliness of this volume of IJPH. Manuscripts collected in this volume cover 12 countries of the region; taking in account that most of the countries of Central–Eastern Europe underwent (or is still undergoing) substantial political, societal, economic and governance changes; this is a positive signal that public health is getting its ground in the region. Countries of the region shared in past the same model for disease prevention, health education and health protection called mostly hygiene (Semashko model) (Sheiman 2013). Despite formally wide acceptance of the Winslow (1920) and Acheson/WHO definition of public health (available at https:// www.euro.who.int/en/health-topics/Health-systems/publichealth-services), understanding of what public health is different not only by countries, but also by different pillar of the systems. Research and education picked up the public health terminology rather quickly and introduced
This Editorial is part of the special issue Adolescent health in Central and Eastern Europe. & Gabriel Gulis [email protected] 1
Unit for Health Promotion Research, University of Southern Denmark, Esbjerg, Denmark
new education programs (Adany et al. 2011; Gulis et al. 2005); all manuscripts presented in this volume are coming from academia or research institutions. Unfortunately, manuscripts coming from next pillar, public health practice, are absent. There could be different reasons for lack of manuscripts from public health practice. One can hypothesize that practice, despite changing names of institution is still often oriented toward classical, Semashko model-based hygiene principles. Hygiene is based on authoritative, state organized control rather than ‘‘organized effort of society to promote health and prevent disease.’’ Transforming the meaning into understanding and into practice likely requires longer time period as changing academic programs. Type of work could be other reason; state control-based organizations are usually working based on strict deadlines given by state legislation and
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