Tampa Do-Gooder: public health

Showing posts with label public health. Show all posts

10.19.2012

Hey Girl, Call Me Maybe

I'm (finally) getting tired of all these CMM parodies but here's one that pays homage to one of my favorite blogs. Plus there's lots of spanking.

4.03.2012

Happy National Public Health Week!

View the story "In Memoriam" on StorifyIn MemoriamIn observance of National Public Health Week 2012, this is an homage to journalist Randy Shilts & the members of the scientific community who fought to contain & cure AIDS since its start over 30 years ago. This is dedicated to those who have fallen & those who continue to fight. Storified by Dawn Morgan · Thu, Mar 29 2012 18:52:06Sciencesavsabrina

Randy Shilts’ book Andthe Band Played On was published in 1987. It’s the story of the start of AIDSin America.

Randy Shilts warned early about 'baffling diseases' in gay menEditor's note: When he first wrote about it, it was called GRID, for "gay-related immuno-deficiency diseases." Later, we would call it AI...The film version followed in 1993. I remember not understanding too much back then about the politics surrounding the issue. I was about 15 at that point, just afew years older than the epidemic. And The Band Played On (1993)supaflyrobbyMy first love was media, with an emphasis on journalism. Now public health takes a close second. Inside the Outbreaks: The Elite Medical Detectives of the Epidemic Intelligence ServiceThe story begins with a classic public health parable: Two physicians observe people floating down the Brown River. Some were alive and s...

A public healthparable, as told by Beth E. Meyerson:

“Two physicians observepeople floating down the Brown River. Some were alive and struggling, but witheyes glazed. The doctors spring into action, pulling as many people as possiblefrom the river. As the flow of bodies continues unabated, the epidemiologistjumps out of the water and begins to run upstream. Her colleague protests, “ForGod’s sake, help me save these people!” Instead, she ventures upstream to determinethe cause of this carnage.”

The commonality that links the two fields for me is that they both help protect mass quantities of people. Randy Shilts Interview, 1987 - Part Oneednayarkspay

At over 600+ pages And the Band Played On is literally a heavy book, not to mention emotionally cumbersome. I knew before I startedreading it that many of its real-life characters would fall victim to thedisease, as did its author Randy Shilts, the first full-time reporterassigned to cover the AIDS beat.

Randy Shilts was gutsy, brash and unforgettable. He died 10 years ...Feb 17, 2004 ... Randy Shilts was gutsy, brash and unforgettable. He died 10 years ago, fighting for the rights of gays in American soc...

The Story

While the American Sexual Revolution of the 1960’s & '70's was in full swing, across the world in Africa, Ebola struck but was quickly quashed. It was followed by another mysterious illness.

#fridayreads Almost halfway thru the 603 pg. 'And the Band Played On.' already my fav public health/journalism book http://pic.twitter.com/IKfDDFHkDawn Morgan

Sex had become arecreational sport, and with the advent of gay bath houses, a commercializedenterprise.

play it safesavsabrina

No one wants to be toldhow to live their lives or have their civil liberties trampled, but when risky sexual behavior put lives at risk, doctors,public health officials & other concerned citizens wanted to warn peoplethat they were harming themselves and others.

This was a difficult challengefor allies of the gay community & even gay doctors.

Dritzsavsabrina

At first the gay community refused to acknowledge the problem.

kramer1savsabrinaThe government didn’t want to fund research for a cause, much less a cure, and the mainstream media didn't want to talk about it. band1savsabrina

From the beginning,writer Larry Kramer was living in New York, the epicenter, and watched thedisease grow and decimate. In a 2011 interview with CNN, Kramersaid, “Most people have not wanted to know the truths about AIDS.”

AIDS is a plague allowed to happenHere are 10 realities about AIDS, and I've learned them the hard way: 1. AIDS is a plague -- numerically, statistically and by any defini...Some people really tried to help, to do their jobs well. They werethwarted again and again.wsjsavsabrinaA Glimmer of Hope? AIDSsavsabrinaIt’s not every day that a new disease is discovered. AIDS changedlives, career paths, and slowly, our culture.careerssavsabrinaHow AIDS Changed America - The Daily BeastMay 14, 2006 ... The plague years: It brought out the worst in us at first, but ultimately it brought out the best, and transformed the...

But back in 1981, beforeall this would be revealed, researchers at the CDC had no budget to hire thescientists needed to study the new disease or to buy the necessary labequipment.

What are we waititng forsavsabrinaMeanwhile reporters needed help “selling” the disease to their editors. They begged to have another angle, a straight angle, to have the story go mainstream.
give us something elsesavsabrinaFemale-to-Male Transmission of AIDS, August 23, 1985, Haverkos and Edelman 254 (8): 1035 - JAMASince this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text. Excerpt To the Editor.- Dr Redfield ...Young politician Bill Kraus, who had been an aide to city supervisor Harvey Milk, tried to raise funds & awareness of the disease from inside the system. band2savsabrinaIt didn’t even have an official name yet.No NamesavsabrinaI’m half way thru this massive text but I already know that there won't be a happy ending. Sure, there's medication that has moved AIDS from a deadly disease to a chronic one that can be managed.

But that's not good enough. We've lost too many people and will lose more. And the loudest voices at times are those still preaching hatred, evil & sin.

Band3savsabrinaIn 2005 my good friend Michael was diagnosed HIV+.
Video: Through ink and blood, acceptanceI thought we were past this, my generation being unsafe, but when I examined my own habits, I saw they were often less than careful. Many people still think this can't happen to them, or don't think at all. Reproductive and Sexual Health | APHA National Public Health WeekReproductive and Sexual Health Download fact sheet Routine screenings and education can go a long way toward helping Americans improve re...From STD's to obesity, most of us choose the overall health of our bodies. We get to decide whether or not we'll practice safe sex, receive vaccinations, eat whole foods, and refuse to text /drink & drive. But humans do not tend to plan that far ahead. CDC EPR | Social Media | Preparedness 101: Zombie ApocalypseImage of Zombie Novella ... follow Todd, Julie, and their dog Max as a strange new disease begins spreading, turning ordinary people in...Public health people know that behavior is the hardest thing to change.

12.21.2011

A Healthy Public

To keep my brain moving at a happy pace (it gets sad when bored & unchallenged), last semester I overloaded it with two classes as a non degree seeking graduate student in USF's College of Public Health.

I'm still unsure of which flavor MPH I'd like to earn. There's the policy track, which could turn me into the C-SPAN nerd of my dreams while giving me the tools to help improve health care & access to care for all Americans.

Then there's the behavioral track, which I'm drawn towards more each day I drive through the city and see panhandlers, disabled vets and other homeless folks, not to mention people with obvious mental & drug issues.

We wouldn't allow someone with a bleeding stump to sit on the sidewalk and bleed to death (I'm assuming, but refer to my aforementioned access to care comment).

So why has our society turned their collective noses up at mental issues, especially drug and alcohol addiction, for so long?

10.27.2011

The Panic Virus

Science and media are two of my favorite topics. When done right, they can bring such good into the world.

But evil (or at the very least, lazy) scientists and media makers sometimes produce sloppy if not dangerous work.

Both fail miserably when they can't break down complex subjects and communicate the importance of these topics in our daily lives. Or if they make stuff up.

This week I interviewed journalist and science writer Seth Mnookin on his book The Panic Virus, which examines the massive fear bad (rejected!) science brought to vaccinations. Vaccines, by the way, are considered one of the top 10 public health achievements of the 20th Century (i.e. a major reason 30 is no longer considered old).

Mnookin is speaking on this topic Thursday, October 27th at the University of South Florida at noon at the Samuel Bell Auditorium in the College of Public Health.

4.05.2011

Week of Health

We are smack in the middle of National Public Health Week and Thursday is World Health Day.

USF's College of Public Health has a bunch of activities going on this week (calendar here), from bike safety to film screenings to blood donation. Public health really is the whole shebang.

I love this year's slogan "Safety is NO Accident." Many moons ago I trained to be a bus driver in the suburbs of Seattle. I still remember how adamant my trainer was about referring to accidents as crashes. He said there was no such thing as an accident, and because we were the professionals and the biggest vehicle on the roads, we had to drive so well that we'd be able to prevent bad drivers from crashing into us.

It sounded unreasonable at first, but I'd come to appreciate the accountability of the dedicated bus drivers. I'm a pretty responsible driver today because of them.

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