In a free society, social justice is the central core to the field of public health. It evaluates and accounts for equitable distribution of public health merits and advocates for sharing of common burdens (Gostin & Powers, 2006). Globally, public health faces common inequality barriers, and in some cases, its progress is hindered by differences in value of individual liberty, economics, politics, religion, morals and ethical standards. The associated cost of blind sight to the barriers expand into a multitude wave of warehouse of neglects, which in turn creates a surge in societal menace and public health hazard. Unfortunately, public health policies are not far from stigmatization. The stigma surrounding some of the public health policies is based on social structures, religion, and morals values, which can lead to a structured Pygmalion society, a phenomenon in which high expectation leads to better performance or the Golem effect, a phenomenon in which low expectation leads to low performance or both. For instance, these self-fulfilling challenges contributed in creating controversies for HIV/AIDS education, prevention, and control inside and outside the US.

In part, HIV/AIDS is ravaging developing countries because of the stigmatized low expectation of health care infrastructure and political instability in most developing countries, which undermine the essence of induction of good quality of life. The core benefits of social justice can be assessed in lots of different ways, but economic burden can be easily quantified rather than ethics, morals, religion or politics associated with the global public health issues.
For instance, in the US, there are more than 1 million people affected with HIV and 562, 793 had died (Schneider, 2011). The US spent $11.6 billion on HIV related medical care in 2005, under the HIV/AIDs policy at the time. In Thailand, about 572,500 people are infected with HIV/AIDS, which is about half the US infection (Levine, 2004). However, Thai government spent about $375 million from 1998 to 2001 under the “100% condom Use Programme” and other affiliated policies associated with HIV/AIDS control in Thailand within sex establishments (Levine, 2004).

Hence, public health programs can be assessed based on the market and social justice. Market justice is the principles of individualism, self-interest, personal effort, and voluntary behavior. While social justice is the concept of shared responsibility and concern for the societal well-being, with the government as the medium for ensuring equity. In public health, both market and social justice must be maintained in order to attain a successful public health programs. These principles were tested in Thailand with the HIV/AIDS program, and was shown to be efficient and cost-effective both politically and scientifically.

References

Gostin, L., & Powers, M. (2006). What does social justice require for the public’s health? Public health ethics and policy imperatives. Health Affairs, 25(4), 1053-1060.  Retrieved from  http://scholarship.law.georgetown.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1482&context=facpub

Levine, R. (2004 ). Case Studies in Global Health: Millions Saved, 2- “ PreventingHIV/AIDS and Sexually Transmitted Infections in Thailand”.  Retrieved from           http://www.cg dev.org/doc /millions/MS_case._2.pdf.

Schnieder, M. (2010). Introduction to public health. (3^rd ed.). Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett

Bartlett, J. G., Branson, B. M., Fenton, K., Hauschild, B., Miller, V., & Mayer, K. (2008). Opt-out testing for human immunodeficiency virus in the United States: Progress and challenges. Journal of the American Medical Association, 300(8), 945–951. Retrieved from https://class.waldenu.edu/@@/652F662AA4580D91485B187143F6AD4B/courses/1/USW1.41715.201360/db/_21578865_1/Opt%20out%20HIV%20Testing.pdf.

Center for disease control and protection. (2013). HIV in the United States: At A Glance.            Retrieved from  http://www.cdc.gov/hiv/statistics/basi cs/ataglance.html