Key points

• The term ‘health protection’ covers threats to health such as infectious diseases, environmental hazards such as chemical releases and radiological incidents, natural disasters and terrorism.

• Health-protection actions depend upon the nature of the infecting organism (pathogen) or hazard, the transmission route and the response of the host to the hazard. Individuals can help to protect themselves by being aware of the nature of different risks and the methods by which individuals are exposed.

• Vaccines are an effective way to protect whole populations against some infectious diseases.

• Surveillance of infectious diseases is important to identify outbreaks, monitor levels of disease, plan control measures, monitor outcomes of control programmes and enable efficient targeting of resources.

• The public health effects of communicable disease are controlled through actions that affect hosts for the disease, transmission, susceptibility of the population, disease identification and disease treatment.

• Environmental health involves the reduction, investigation and control of potential health hazards, which arise from an environmental or man-made origin.

• Emergency planning and response is increasingly important as a mechanism to plan for and control the health effects of large-scale disasters and emergencies, including natural disasters and terrorist attacks.

Introduction

Health protection refers to threats to health such as infectious diseases, environmental threats, natural disasters and the threats from terrorist acts. Health protection may also overlap with action tackling the determinants of health, especially legislative aspects such as workplace smoking bans or speed restrictions and even lifestyle choices and the health issues of ageing populations such as increasing levels of chronic disease (which we now know may also be due to infections).