Realhealth tv HPV

I watched a video on HPV, I saw it on youtube but it was originally on realhealth.tv. I think that this video was very well done. It was just one girl telling her story about HPV, how she contracted it and what she has to do now to deal with it. I think that it does a good job of conveying a true message having the information coming from a girl who seems just like a down to earth person, not a doctor or professional or anyting. It doesn't really use fear to get its message across it is more of just a very informational video that is more out there to help people understand that there doesn't have to be such a negative connotation with this STI. I think that all of the information in this video was true, it was more of the story of a girl that did have a few things about how she was being treated and needing to get tested.
I think that the target audience for this video was young adults around college age. The girl was trying to help people understand that you don't have to be permiscuous to get a STI. I think that she did very well to connect with her target audience and to get her point across. This video was well done and showed that there doesn't have to be such a bad stigma that goes with having an STI. If they stepped up I believe that advertising could change the way that people view STI's and those that have them. If more people understood that it is a fairly common thing and can happen to most anyone than we would not treat those who have STI's any differently than those people that don't. I think that media not really being able to talk about sex very much has made it hard for them to take a stance either way on STI's. If this changes there could be a lot of good done by advertising to help people that have an STI feel more comfortable.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Dci50v3FCE

President's Apology to Tuskegee

The study that was done at Tuskegee was a horribly unethical study that studied the affects of syphilis in a group of African American people in the city of Tuskegee. These people were lied to and denied treatment even after it had been found. It has major implications beyond the obvious distrust of government including African Americans distrust of health officials as well as a belief in some that AIDS was forced on the black community in an attempt to harm them. An apology to these people is not nearly enough but it was definitely a start. President Clinton did well to acknowledge all of the people that he did and I think that the plan that he enacted was definitely a step in the right direction.

Clinton's apology was pretty emotional and seemed very heartfelt even with just reading it. I think that everyone understands that these people were wrong and the President did well to put into words how sorry he personally was. It was also really nice that he backed it up with a plan to try to increase the techniques and safety of future research. I think that his point about needing more African Americans for conducting research was very prevalent. I think that in order for studies to serve the greater good of the nation, all minorities need to be involved in the study so we can learn how different things affect a diverse population. I think that African Americans have come a long way in this country even just since this study. The inauguration of Barack Obama today is a great example of that. I think that he will make great strides for this country. I think also having an African American in that situation of power will change the way that many African Americans see things. With a black man in the white house I think there will be much more trust in the government in the black community. I think it will also make minorities more likely to get involved in politics and studies.

Smallpox as a Bioweapon?

Bioterrorism is one of the biggest threats to public health today. The fact that there are people out there who possess the power to release a dangerous virus to the American people is very scary. It was a great success to find a vaccine that cured smallpox but the fact that it is no longer commonly used could directly lead to a terrorist attack. We have to understand that the U.S. has plenty of enemies in the world that know how lethal an attack with bioweapons could be and would surely unleash it under the right circumstance. This would create an epidemic of smallpox if it were unleashed in the right urban locations and there would not be much we could do about it.

I personally don't believe that there will be an attack like this on the U.S. If there was it would surely change the landscape of the entire world. The implications of an attack of that magnitude would change so many things worldwide including foreign relations, the economy, politics, there is so many things that would become unstable. While I don't believe that it is going to happen that doesn't mean that we should be unprepared. We understand that it is a threat and could happen so building up a response sooner rather than later can't hurt. A resurgence of Smallpox would be devastating for our country and I think that having a plan for if it were to happen is a really good idea.

There has been plenty of times that a break through in public health that have led to unexpected consequences. The first thing that pops into my head is teaching sex education in schools. While I believe it is important that kids are taught sex education it has not done much to help the fact that teen pregnancy is still a major problem in this country. Kids are still experimenting if not more so than before they were learning about sexuality in schools.