Public Health which focuses on disease prevention, health promotion and human well-being, is an interdisciplinary field of science which not only addresses public health workers but also medical doctors, epidemiologists and biostatisticians. Under the overall heading of public health are other important subfields such as environmental and occupational health, health economics, health promotion, ethics and public health policy.

The Journal of Public Health is an up-to-date publication working on the reflection, scientific presentation and discussion regarding all public health topics and presents the programs and interventions which take place both in developed and developing countries. Moreover, it offers the potential of disseminating the results of recent scientific research on public health issues with such a consecutive development to a wide range of health professionals and beyond.

In this issue of the Journal of Public Health, a series of very interesting articles are included. Oluwafemi Oluwole et al. present an overview of the recent scientific literature on the usage of biomass fuels and the healthy impacts associated with indoor air pollution exposure on adults, children and pregnancy in developing countries. The different effects of the residential area–industrial area of residency and exposure to ambient air pollution vs. rural area of residency–on the development of atopic disorders i.e. hay fever, allergic conjunctivitis, eczema, wheezing and dry cough in the last 12 months as well as spirometric indices in Greek schoolchildren was examined by Papadimitriou et al. In Turkey, Bavbek et al. found that the prevalence of drug related hypersensitivity in adulthood is associated with age, personal and family history of allergic diseases and drug hypersensitivity respectively.

Early diagnosis and prevention of infectious diseases play an important role in the field of public health. Natarajaseenivasan et al. examined the prevalence, gene distribution and antibiotic sensitivity of community-acquired Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus (MRSA) in tertiary-care teaching center patients at Puducherry, India and concluded that despite the increase in the prevalence of MRSA, the MRSA isolates were sensitive to lincosamide and macrolide antibiotics. Concerning the fact that tuberculosis is another important infectious disease, Buregyeya et al. in Uganda performed a qualitative study on patients’ and health workers’ opinions regarding infection control measures in health-care centres by the usage of masking, cough etiquette and patient separation. Regarding the research on infectious diseases, Zhang et al. studied the case fatality rates based on the confirmed number of cases and deaths of the influenza A (H1N1) in 28 countries (areas) and compared the severity among them.

Adopting healthy habits is an important topic in the field of public health and is analyzed in three articles in this issue of the Journal of Public Health. In Australia, a 3-year retrospective study took place by Liang et al. who found that the increased probability of consuming alcohol above low risk levels was significantly associated with the age (<18 year-old) of first use of alcohol. Simmet et al., in a study sample of more than 3,000 individuals in Germany, found that a statistically significant association occurs between high blood pressure (systolic and diastolic) and increased sodium intake. Orimagedun et al. in Nigeria examined the prevalence of smoking in teenagers as well as the main factors associated with such a habit in this age group and found that it is associated with parents’ and best friends’ smoking habits.

Furthermore, in Canada, Mukhopadhyay et al. worked on estimating the macroeconomic impacts of adopting a healthy diet by using a suitably modified economic model. In the same theme of health economics, Peters-Klimm et al. determined the health services costs associated with patients with heart failure, i.e. hospitalization and hospital admissions, number of practice attendances, and referrals to ambulatory-based cardiologists due to heart failure.

In terms of mental health, Haggag et al. examined the development of maternal depression associated with the quality of the mother, partner and work roles in women. The current issue of the Journal of Public Health provides the health professional with a richness of well-conducted scientific information on a variety of public health topics which will open new scientific paths to many readers.