Genetics and Public Health

This chapter wraps up by discussing the crucial role played by public health specialists who must reconcile traditional public health concerns of health inequality and equity with safe and effective health interventions and diagnostics that meet individual health needs. Since most genetic diseases in the realm of public health are an interplay of different genetic, lifestyle, and environmental factors, genomic science has given greater emphasis to the importance of molecular and cellular mechanisms in health and disease. New biological knowledge must be integrated with the social and environmental models to improve health at individual and population levels. Public health specialists must now be able to integrate genome-based knowledge into public health in a responsible, ethical, and effective way and anticipate the increase in the health service requirements likely to occur in the future. The foundational pillars of bioethics (beneficence, non-maleficence, autonomy, and justice) must be protected by all public health stakeholders.