Community Health

Community health refers to health issues concerning a common group of people. It is different from individual health issues in the sense that symptoms, control measures are community oriented. Large part of community health deals with preventive medicines as well as preventive care. Preventive care may include many community facilities involving sanitation, environmental pollution, educating about public hygiene etc.

Major community health services are

• Immunisation programmes against diseases like cholera, polio, typhoid, jaundice, etc as a preventive measure.

• Vaccination against diseases like tuberculosis, small pox and measles.

• Control of mosquito by spraying insecticides and improving sanitation.

• Awareness programmes about safe healthy drinking water.

• Checking food adulteration.

• Testing food and avoiding accidental food poisoning.

• Educating the people about communicable disease and their method of spread.

• Awareness programmes about the cause and prevention of diseases like AIDS.

• Health education programmes at schools, and at adult education units.

• Educating the people about nutritional imbalances and nutritional need of a body.

• Educating the people about addictive disorders.

• Social rehabilitation programmes for victims of drug addiction, AIDS, alcoholism etc.

• Treatment and rehabilitation programmes for mentally retarded children.

Population as a Resource

Population supplies trained and skilled labour to the country. It is important for the economic growth. If the skilled labour pioneer is properly utilised in industries, it will result in large scale production and the cost of production will fall, the price of products will decline and the market will expand leading to more production.

So trained and skilled labour in the human capital and an increase in human capital contributes to economic growth of a country.

Increase in population also leads to an increase in demand, which is an incentive for increased scale of production and diversification of production pattern, which in turn increases employment opportunities.