Chlamydia Prevention through Condoms

I chose an ad by Lafa, Stockholm Aids prevention program. The ads are focused on the use of condoms to prevent the spread of chlamydia. These ads are a letter from an infected individual to the person they may have spread chlamydia to. The letters apologize for the inconvenience and suggest that they get tested for the infection. To end the ad there is a black box in the bottom right corner that states "Condom. Still the easiest way to avoid anxiety."

These ads do use a fear method. They try to get you to realize how difficult it would be to tell someone they may have contracted chlamydia from you. Also it is telling you that if you were to just use a condom the whole situation could be avoided. While this is not entirely true because condoms can fail and the transmission of the infection will still occur. The chances of spreading chlamydia with the use of a condom drop significantly.

The age group this ad is focusing on is all ages that are sexually active. The ad is rather lengthy in what you need to read though which makes it less effective than a simple few words. To get the entire message you would need to read nearly an entire page of text, which I believe would turn many people away from actually looking at it.

I believe the media can play a big role in the prevention and education of STI's. Everyone watches T.V. and looks at their surroundings enough to see what is being advertised. If they put up more safer sex messages it would only help people realize what they should be doing to be healthier individuals and make the proper decisions.

Syphilis Study Apology

The Tuskegee syphilis study was a clinical study done between the years of 1932 and 1972. It was located in Tuskegee, Alabama. The study was conducted by the U.S. Public health Service, it was designed to follow the natural progression of syphilis in untreated patients. The patients used were poor uneducated African American's, they were coerced into being patients by being told they would receive various benefits if they continued with the study/treatment of their "Bad Blood" disease. By 1947 penicillin was available to cure syphilis but the patients in the study were left untreated and even pulled from treatment if they somehow managed to get it to ensure the results of the study would stay true. Even with all the bad that came from the study it did have a benefit, it made people realize they need to make rules and regulations behind clinical studies to protect the patients.

The apology was first directed at the survivors of the study, then to the county it was preformed in. After Clinton made the formal apology he gave ways for the apology to have merit in the future. He stated various ways to make the African American community's trust in the U.S. increase. Also Clinton gave reasons as to why the study went the way it did, that health care providers forgot their primary goal of maintaining health and instead worked on research to just improve the future.

My reaction to the apology was, why did it take so long. Considering how immoral the study was and being found out about in 1972, I would have thought the government would want apologize much sooner out of respect for the people that were harmed in the study. Having to wait the 25 years for an apology seems to me like the people who were responsible for the study were unable to take responsibility for their actions and just hid in shame in the hope it would not reemerge again to haunt them. In all the apology was a good one it apologized on the personal level and the community level for the actions done.

TB and its Future Health Concerns

Multidrug-resistant tuberculosis is a rising concern among doctors. It is primarily caused by people who mismanage their prescriptions in curing regular TB. The regular TB is curable in six months where as the MDR TB takes up to two years to fully cure, because of this it is recommended that treatment for TB be done in the view and care of someone that can make sure the person is taking the medicine as directed. If the medicine is used incorrectly then the formation of MDR TB results.

The major reason why we should be concerned with MDR TB is because of how much more difficult it is to treat. The normal drugs used become less effective and that means that a stronger more invasive drug must be used instead to fix the problem. Since this MDR TB is harder to fix it has a higher mortality rate to go along with it.

I personally am not overly concerned with getting TB. This is because it is most prolific in poorly ventilated homes that are also crowded. Since in the US we have many standards for building quality I believe that contracting TB is one of the last things to concern myself with. Although if I were to travel or come into prolonged contact with someone or place that was more encouraging of the transmission of TB I would want to get checked for it.

MDR TB has most likely led to many improvements in how to deal with drugs that can adapt quickly to treatment if misuse occurs. Doctors are probably more prone to make sure if a serious disease is being treated that they make sure the patient is under survaliance of some form to ensure they are taking the medication properly. The discovery of resistant infections has probably led many scientists and doctors to also realize that they need to be careful when prescribing certian drugs as to not enhance the resistance of infections but also to make sure they create a drug that will last the longest and be most successful in treatment.