Welcome to the Purdue PHSA Blog. Here, I hope graduate students are able to express their ideas, concerns, and opinions regarding public health and interact with faculty, staff, and those outside of Purdue. The ability for students to reach beyond the classroom and have a forum to freely share their experiences and interests is imperative for positive personal, educational, and professional growth.
I am very excited that all of the current PHSA officers and members have such a wide range of interests and will be able to respectively provide different perspectives on a variety of topics.
I would like to quickly begin this blog by encouraging people to read this short article;
"2014 ‘state of public health’ with CDC Director Tom Frieden"
APHA Public Health Newswire has an annual interview with the CDC Director to discuss the 'state of public health'. This year, CDC Director Tom Frieden stresses five specific health threats that need to be addressed in 2014. These include: antibiotic resistance and advanced molecular detection; prescription drug abuse and overdose; global health security; human papillomavirus, or HPV; and polio.
As a student and future public health professional, I am concerned with the direction and redistribution of resources in order to focus on these issues. Of course they are absolutely important and must be addressed, but with an inadequate budget for health prevention efforts, will other issues be neglected? How will this new direction affect the field as a whole? And how can I contribute to the solution of these issues as a student?