"This book is an introduction to public health as a discipline, and a critique of its recent development. Identifying poverty as the greatest continuing threat to health worldwide, the authors review epidemiological, demographic and public-health trends internationally, and argue that the prospects for public health will improve only if health in a broad sense becomes a central concern of the policy-making process." "This extensively revised edition reviews major health trends, the current state of the world's health, and the latest estimates of the global burden of disease." "This book will be of interest to all health professionals."--Jacket.