Cost Benefit Analysis In Public Health

Public health is the practice in which the general health and wellness of the individual and the population is closely protected and regulated. The general wellness of all individuals in the community is one aspect of society that must be maintained. This is due to the fact that the health and wellness of all individuals in a population affects not only the individual, but also all members of the community. Therefore, health and wellness must be maintained through a cost-benefit analysis method. In the text, a cost benefit analysis is defined as a method in which the costs and the benefits of specific public health policies are compared while also comparing it to the monetary value of the policies (Childress 23-24). This cost benefit analysis

The weight of privacy and confidentiality, in regards to public health, only extends to some instances. However, privacy and confidentiality decreases in importance when in different and dire situations. Overall, in order for respect between the individual and their health care professional, privacy and confidentiality must be maintained. However, there are many instances in public health where individual liberties must be compromised in order to protect and maintain the health of the individual and the health of the community. For instance, in many public health crises, individual liberties, including privacy and confidentiality, must be compromised in order to help the individual. For example, during terrorist attacks, many individuals are severely injured and must be healed immediately. These individuals may not have privacy in this crisis in order to be healed in a separate room, rather many of these individuals are healed on site. Therefore, privacy is withheld in order to take care of an individual. As stated previously, privacy and confidentiality may be withheld not only in regards to the health of an individual, but also in regards to the health of the community or population. The health of the population typically must compromise the confidentiality between the individual and their health care professional. An example of this applies to the AIDS epidemic that occurred in the United States. Many people in the US were infected with the HIV virus that spread to different individuals in the population. During this time, confidentiality was broken in order to protect other people in the population that came in sexual contact with a specific individual who contracted the HIV virus. Although many people do not agree with the concept, individual