Know Public Health, April 10, 1999, Omaha World-Herald

From: David E. Corbin, Omaha

As president of the Nebraska Public Health Association, I appreciated Leslie Reed's April 4
article about the reorganization of the Health and Human Services System. All Nebraskans will
benefit if this reorganization succeeds, but part of the problem from the public health
standpoint was revealed by Ms. Reed herself.

The article stated that HHSS "serves about 200,000 clients." Actually public health serves all
of the public - the air we breathe, the water we drink, the restaurants where we eat, the
swimming pools where we swim, the immunizations we receive, are important to the health of
all of us and are all part of what public health does.

April 5-9 was National Public Health Week. It is important for citizens to know that public health
is for everyone, not solely the 200,000 "troubled youth, the poor, disabled, mentally ill, those
addicted to alcohol or drugs and the elderly" as stated in the article.