“Our Health is Our Wealth”

Public Health focuses on preventing disease, promoting healthy behaviors, and protecting communities before illness occurs. By addressing factors like ensuring clean air and water, expanding access to healthcare, vaccinations, and health education, public health reduces the burden on healthcare systems and improves quality of life. It also works to reduce health disparities, ensuring that everyone regardless of background has the opportunity to live a healthier, longer life.

Public Health’s success is measured by problems that don’t happen—like outbreaks prevented or lives saved, public health efforts can be undervalued or overlooked. Thus, public health programs are often in danger because they face budget cuts, shifting political priorities, workforce shortages, and public distrust. As a result, many programs struggle to maintain the resources needed to protect communities and respond effectively to emerging health challenges.

Deep cuts erode the foundations of US public health system, end progress, threaten worse to come | AP News | 31 May, 2025

Healthcare accessibility in rural communities continues to be a challenge on the national level and in Georgia as well.  Many rural hospitals are struggling to provide essential health services for their communities due to various factors which include financial losses and cuts to funding sources.  In Georgia, 20 of the state’s 71 rural hospitals have been considered at-risk for closing.  Of those 20 facilities, 10 are considered as being an immediate risk of closing. 

For many rural healthcare facilities, reductions in the types of services they provide is another challenge for many rural communities.  Many facilities that manage to stay open often shudder entire units which can provide essential services for people living in those communities.  These reductions in services mean less healthcare access to rural communities which furthers the health divide between urban and rural communities.

20 rural Georgia hospitals at risk of closure, new report says | FOX 5 Atlanta | 16 May, 2025

Rural Georgia hospital to close L&D unit, partly because of Medicaid cuts • Georgia Recorder | 17 Sept, 2025

Rural Hospital Closures Reduce Access to Emergency Care – Center for American Progress | 19 Sept, 2025

‘Medicaid Cut Me Off’: A Rural Health Center Faces New Pressures – The New York Times | 22 Oct, 2025

Tracking Measles in the U.S.: Latest Maps and Cases – The New York Times Measles Tracker

Vaccinations are important in helping to keep people and communities healthy by preventing serious, deadly diseases from spreading.  By training the immune system to recognize and fight specific infections, vaccines prevent illnesses like measles, influenza, and hepatitis before they can spread.  High vaccination rates are helpful in creating herd immunity, which reduces disease transmission and protects vulnerable people – such as infants, the elderly, and those with weakened immune systems – who cannot be vaccinated.  In addition to saving lives, vaccines reduce healthcare costs by preventing expensive treatments, hospitalizations, and outbreaks before they happen which can strain hospitals and public health systems.  Vaccines keep schools and workplaces open, which supports social and economic stability in our communities.  Vaccines represent a cornerstone of modern medicine and public health, protecting both individuals and society from preventable illnesses and ensuring healthier, more resilient communities.

Environmental health and disease surveillance are essential for protecting Georgia communities from health threats that arise from the environment.  Monitoring air, water, soil, and food quality helps identify and prevent community exposures to pollutants, toxins, and pathogens that can cause  illness.   Disease surveillance systems track patterns of infectious and chronic diseases, allowing public health officials to detect outbreaks early, respond quickly, and prevent further spread.  Together, they help public health officials respond quickly to emerging threats  – such as contaminated drinking water, mosquito-borne illnesses, or industrial pollution – and develop policies and frameworks for keeping Georgia communities safe.  Effective environmental monitoring and prevention efforts are essential for maintaining a clean environment, reducing disease burden, and promoting community well-being

Opioid drug overdoses and deaths remain a top public health priority as cases continue to rise in Georgia and nationally.  Public health officials have been raising public awareness on the dangers of opioid addiction and opioid overdoses in lieu of the decrease in opioid prescription accessibility.  Increases in heroin use and other synthetic drugs, like fentanyl, have skyrocketed since the early 2010s.  Georgia communities, especially in rural areas, have seen dramatic increases in overdose deaths, emergency room visits, hospitalizations, and overdose reversals.  While much progress has been made on prescription opioid usage, illicit opioid accessibility and usage remains a challenge for Georgia communities.  Synthetic opioid-related deaths accounted for more than 60% of all overdose deaths in 2023.  In 2023-2024, the opioid-related death rate decreased 24.7 % from the previous the year.  While this data is encouraging, we remain hopeful that public awareness campaigns continue to bring awareness to the opioid crisis. Through scientific research, we can understand that addiction is not a moral failure, but rather a medical disorder that impacts the functioning of the brain and behavior.