David Henry, Princeton Regional Health Department
Have you ever heard of Dr. Charles Henneken? In 1988, his study on aspirin discovered that daily, small doses of aspirin could reduce men’s chances of having a heart attack by 44 percent. In 1849, John Snow figured out that Britain’s cholera epidemic was being spread through contaminated water. Then there was Dr. Ezra Hunt. This Princeton graduate helped developed public health standards for the nation and the establishment of the State Board of Health in New Jersey in 1877. These are but a few examples of public health professionals whose breakthrough discoveries have enriched and saved the lives of countless people worldwide.
And right here in Princeton we have public health pioneers like Dr. Henneken, Dr. Snow and Dr. Hunt working tirelessly to protect our health. Nov. 24 is Public Health Thank You Day, and what better time than the Monday before Thanksgiving, when we say thank you for all the things life has afforded us, to say thank you to our local public health heroes. Our public health heroes dedicate their careers to help safeguard our lives and our health every day by helping us prevent injuries, infectious disease, and chronic illness. These public health professionals work year-round to protect us from the ordinary and not-so-ordinary health threats. We all owe a debt of gratitude to these heroes – our public health professionals at the local, state and federal level who make it possible for us to live in a safer, healthier world.
These everyday heroes include health inspectors, animal control officers, environmental health scientists, sanitation workers, physicians, nurses and public health volunteers.
Each year, public health volunteers, in conjunction with the Princeton Senior Resource Center and the Princeton HealthCare System serve and vaccinate senior citizens at our annual senior flu clinics/flu fair. Research! America, one of the organizations that are sponsoring Public Health Thank You Day, has conducted polls that show 85 percent of Americans think scientific research is important in today’s society and 75 percent of Americans favor increasing federal funding for state and local health departments and hospitals nationwide.
In today’s economic situation, we cannot afford any more cuts in public health funding. In fact, we need to increase funding on investments that are always profitable – such as our own health. The only way to continue and better protect American citizens, and to prove the effectiveness of public health strategies, is through public health research. Federal agencies such as the National Institutes of Health could be even more effective if public health research received more than six cents of every dollar spent on health and medical research in the U.S. Another Research. America survey shows that nearly 60 percent of Americans would be willing to pay more for medical research. We should all be willing to devote more to research to treat, prevent, and protect ourselves and our families. Let us thank our public health professionals on Public Health Thank You Day. See www.publichealththankyouday.org.
David Henry, Health Officer
Princeton Regional
Health Department
Princeton

