Essential for anyone involved in the development of public health systems today and into the future, this book describes the characteristics of local, state and federal public health agencies. Extremely well-referenced, this book can serve as a source book for beginning further education or to help with research topics in public health. In the 2nd edition, 5 new chapters are added to provide state-of-the-art coverage of today's public health issues. The new chapters include Chapter 3, The last Decade examines public health in the nineties, Chapter 12 Performance Standards, Chapter 16, Public Health Workforce, Chapter 17, Health Promotion/Disease Prevention Effectiveness, and Chapter 28, International Health Features.