Oxford Textbooks in Public Health – serie

Human beings have always been affected by their surroundings. There are various health benefits linked to being able to access to nature; including increased physical activity, stress recovery, and the stimulation of child cognitive development. The Oxford Textbook of Nature and Public Health provides a broad and inclusive picture of the relationship between our own health and the natural environment. All aspects of this unique relationship are covered, ranging from disease prevention through physical activity in green spaces to innovative ecosystem services, such as climate change adaptation by urban trees. Potential hazardous consequences are also discussed including natural disasters, vector-borne pathogens, and allergies. This book analyses the complexity of our human interaction with nature and includes sections for example epigenetics, stress physiology, and impact assessments. These topics are all interconnected and fundamental for reaching a full understanding of the role of nature in public health and wellbeing. Much of the recent literature on environmental health has primarily described potential threats from our natural surroundings. The Oxford Textbook of Nature and Public Health instead focuses on how nature can positively impact our health and wellbeing, and how much we risk losing by destroying it. The all-inclusive approach provides a comprehensive and complete coverage of the role of nature in public health, making this textbook invaluable reading for health professionals, students, and researchers within public health, environmental health, and complementary medicine.

The Oxford Textbook of Health Protection: Principles and Practice is a comprehensive guide to this important field, addressing all key domains, from communicable disease control and emergency preparedness to environmental public health. Written by leading practitioners and specialists in the field, the book is rooted in a practice-led and evidence-based, all-hazards approach, which facilitates easy access to real-world practice and application of health protection and health security principles. This second edition has been fully revised and expanded to meet the needs of an ever-evolving audience and now sits within the authoritative Oxford Textbooks in Public Health series. This second edition includes 12 new chapters, covering new and emerging topics such as COVID-19 pandemics, genomics epidemiology, non-pharmaceutical interventions, and concepts and framework for future pandemic preparedness. The chapters are arranged into six distinct sections. Each chapter provides trustworthy evidence and a wealth of practical advice, including case studies in community and hospital settings, and practical scenarios. The real-life scenarios provide topic-specific information, explore a wide range of responses using the 'what if' questions that are supported by tools of the trade to encourage reflection, and reinforce consolidation of knowledge. The book also includes a unique tool of self-contained checklists (SIMCARDS) covering more than 180 common and important topics that can arise in health protection practice (including those featured in the scenario chapters), with concise and succinct stand-alone quick reference guides on how to handle them within and out-of-hours.This resource is essential reading for professionals working at all levels in public health and health protection, including those with a non-specialist background in this continually evolving and complex field of public health. 'All the editors and authors have been active in the field of health security and involved through experiential learning in the management of incidents, outbreaks, and other health protection situations for decades. All were at the forefront of the response to the COVID-19 pandemic. They are uniquely able to reflect pragmatically and personally on health security and health protection practice in a variety of situations. This book is, therefore, a practical product of the wealth of their combined experience and will support current professionals in their efforts to ensure the protection and health security of individuals and populations in the UK and internationally.'From the Foreword by Professor Dame Jenny Harries DBE DL, First Chief Executive, UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA)

The relationship between spirituality and healthcare is historical, intellectual and practical, and it has now emerged as a significant field in health research, healthcare policy and clinical practice and training. Understanding health and wellbeing requires addressing spiritual and existential issues, and healthcare is therefore challenged to respond to the ways spirituality is experienced and expressed in illness, suffering, healing and loss. If healthcare has compassionate regard for the humanity of those it serves, it is faced with questions about how it understands and interprets spirituality, what resources it should make available and how these are organised, and the ways in which spirituality shapes and informs the purpose and practice of healthcare? These questions are the basis for this resource, which presents a coherent field of enquiry, discussion and debate that is interdisciplinary, international and vibrant.There is a growing corpus of articles in medical and healthcare journals on spirituality in addition to a wide range of literature, but there has been no attempt so far to publish a standard text on this subject. Spirituality in Healthcare is an authoritative reference on the subject providing unequalled coverage, critical depth and an integrated source of key topics. Divided into six sections including practice, research, policy and training, the project brings together international contributions from scholars in the field to provide a unique and stimulating resource.

Each year there are 10 million deaths among newborns (including stillbirths), children, and adolescents, as well as from maternal causes. These deaths are mostly preventable with existing interventions - a major injustice in todays world. The vast majority happen in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, yet the dangers facing women and children are relevant everywhere. While middle- and high-income countries have lower mortality rates overall, there are still major inequalities in outcomes within these countries. To improve health outcomes for women and children around the world, more data on the burden of disease and evidence of intervention effectiveness are crucial. The Oxford Textbook of Global Health of Women, Newborns, Children, and Adolescents is the first comprehensive book on this topic. Written by experts in the field, this invaluable source takes a lifecourse approach to health. Following women from adolescence to motherhood, it covers sexual and reproductive health, HIV, pregnancy, mental health, and much more. Child development is traced from conception through to pregnancy, the newborn period, and into childhood and adolescence, with topics including newborn care, nutrition, infections, and injuries. This comprehensive resource asks uncomfortable but necessary questions about the determinants of health, such as maltreatment, injury, and malnutrition, and looks at how to influence policy and inspire change. Divided into eight sections and following the lifecourse, the Oxford Textbook of Global Health of Women, Newborns, Children, and Adolescents has a clear structure, helpful illustrations, and study questions in each chapter. Easy to use, it is the ideal textbook for students and practitioners in health care or global health. Looking to the future, it is also an invaluable starting point for policymakers and anyone with a general interest in the subject area. With practical case studies and examples from high and low-resource settings, this book is a unique resource for those involved in women's and children's health everywhere.

The Oxford Textbook of Infectious Disease Control: A Geographical Analysis from Medieval Quarantine to Global Eradication is a comprehensive analysis of spatial theory and the practical methods used to prevent the geographical spread of communicable diseases in humans. Drawing on current and historical examples spanning seven centuries from across the globe, this indispensable volume demonstrates how to mitigate the public health impact of infections in disease hotspots and prevent the propagation of infection from such hotspots into other geographical locations.Containing case studies of longstanding global killers such as influenza, measles and poliomyelitis, through to newly emerged diseases like SARS and highly pathogenic avian influenza in humans, this book integrates theory, data and spatial analysis and locates these quantitative analyses in the context of global demographic and health policy change. Beautifully illustrated with over 100 original maps and diagrams to aid understanding and assimilation, in six sections the authors examine surveillance, quarantine, vaccination, and forecasting for disease control. The discussion covers theoretical approaches, techniques and systems central to mitigating disease spread, and methods that deliver practical disease control. Essential information is also provided on the geographical eradication of diseases, including the design of early warning systems that detect the geographical spread of epidemics, enabling students and practitioners to design spatially-targeted control strategies.Despite the early hope of eradication of many communicable diseases after the global eradication of smallpox by 1979, the world is still working at the control and elimination of the spatial spread of newly-emerging and resurgent infectious diseases. Learning from past examples and incorporating modern surveillance and reporting techniques that are used to design value-for-money spatially-targeted interventions to protect public health, the Oxford Textbook of Infectious Disease Control is an essential resource for all those working in, or studying ways to control the spread of communicable diseases between humans in a timely and cost-effective manner.It is ideal for specialists and students in infectious disease control as well as those in the medical sciences, epidemiology, demography, public health, geography, and medical history.