1                     Public health is what we, as a society, do collectively
        to assure the conditions for people to be healthy. This requires
        that continuing and emerging threats to the health of the public
4      be successfully countered. These threats include immediate
        crises, such as the AIDS epidemic; enduring problems, such as
        injuries and chronic illnesses; and growing challenges, such as
7      the aging of the populations and the toxic by-products of a
        modern economy, transmitted through air, water, soil, or food.
        These and many other problems raise in common the need to
10    protect the nation’s health through effective, organized, and
        sustained efforts led by the public sector.

              Internet: <www.publichealthpolicy.org> (adapted).