According to the American Heritage Dictionary, public health is "the science and practice of protecting and improving the health of a community, as by preventive medicine, health education, control of communicable diseases, application of sanitary measures, and monitoring of environmental hazards."
Former U.S. Surgeon General C. Everett Koop summed up the importance of public health: "Health care is vital to all of us some of the time, but public health is vital to all of us all of the time."
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