Letter to the Editor - Public Health and Human Rights are Related

Dear Editor,

I just wanted to compliment John Steen on his 'Public Health and Human Rights' article in the Winter 2007 issue of our section's newsletter. A couple of years ago when several of my APHA pals and I were discussing the Annual Meeting theme, some people in the conversation felt that a theme like 'public health and human rights' was too provocative, too in-your-face, and thus too risky.

I felt sounder minds prevailed in that particular argument, for precisely some of the reasoning so well articulated in John's article -- that public health and social justice/human rights really can't be separate things. Thankfully, we have Paul Farmer to carry that message in a very public way since Jonathan Mann was so abruptly lost to us all. It's nice to have good writers/researchers like John Steen to remind us periodically what the full spectrum of public health entails.

I really liked his article, and hope to see more of that in our section newsletter. Well done!

From Karen Valenzuela, CHPPD Liaison to the APHA Executive Board