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Embrace Preventive Measures To Limit Disease and Prevent Early Death
Each year, chronic diseases such as heart disease, cancer, and diabetes are responsible for millions of premature deaths and cause Americans to miss 2.5 billion days of work, resulting in lost productivity totaling more than $1 trillion. The theme of National Public Health Week 2012 is "A Healthier America Begins Today: Join the Movement." National Public Health Week 2012 is April 2-8.
We are met with a growing public health problem. If we fail to embrace preventive measures to limit disease and early death, the toll, measured in lives lost and health care dollars spent, is only going to get worse in the years to come.
The focus of National Public Health Week is improved awareness of the need for preventive measures to ensure longer and healthier lives. We know that many illnesses and deaths can be prevented. If Americans did simple things—exercised more frequently, had healthier diets, avoided alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs, practiced proper hand-washing and food preparation, practiced safe sex, and provided proper treatment to those suffering from mental illnesses—we could dramatically reduce the burden of disease and death moving forward, helping to save lives.
For example, reducing foodborne illness by just 10 percent would keep about 5 million Americans from getting sick each year. Cigarette smoking, which is the most common form of tobacco use, causes approximately 443,000 deaths and costs about $96 billion in medical expenditures and $97 billion in productivity losses in the United States annually.
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