European Public Health News

Abstract

This European public health news is looking at the future, and foremost at putting the health of our citizens first. Public health needs to move forward and the way forward includes support, collaboration, integration and an investment in the future public health professionals. Ricciardi emphasizes both the need for collaboration and the need for science, but especially the need for a change in the culture of the public health professionals. Our EUPHAnxt coordinators emphasize this change of culture and aim to prepare the next generations of public health professionals to be committed and engaged. Jakab reaffirms the need for participatory and intersectoral health systems and Borg commits to continuous support to European Union (EU) member states to invest in our future by investing in the health of our citizens. If we all work in the same direction, the future of public health is indeed looking bright. # President's Column {#article-title-2} Twentieth century health systems were dominated by clinicians, effectiveness and efficiency. The two revolutions, the control of infectious disease and the battle against non-communicable disease, are both still ongoing, but the results of these revolutions are very different if we compare the situation in the developed world and in the developing countries. The infant mortality rate is 5.1 in Canada and 97.1 in Haiti, the rate of maternal deaths is 35 times higher in Latin America than in North America and the lifetime risk of death is 1 in 7.700 deliveries in Canada and 1 in 17 in Haiti. In Western industrialized countries, the success of public health has in many cases changed the nature of these societies, making them ‘health societies’, putting health as a main theme in social and political life, and as a major individual goal with a high life expectancy and ageing populations and an expansive health and medical care …