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Posts Tagged ‘STDs’

Hope, change and AIDS

December 2nd, 2009 Betsy No comments

Matthew Hanley, Mercatornet.com

World AIDS Day 2009 reminds us once again of the failure of risk reduction strategies.

December 1, 2009 is World AIDS Day — the first in the era of “hope and change”. So it is a particularly good time to ponder how well “risk reduction” measures for AIDS control — the most emphasised approaches to preventing new HIV cases — produce change and generate hope. Read more…

On Guard Against the Gardasil Juggernaut

November 6th, 2009 Betsy 1 comment

By George Delgado, M.D.

No one likes the feeling that something has been shoved down his or her throat.  Merck, the pharmaceutical giant is looking like a bully in how it thrust Gardasil, the first genital human papilloma virus (HPV) vaccine, on the US market.      

You might imagine genital HPV infection being like an iceberg.  The small tip represents those infections that lead to cervical cancer.  Below the water is the vast majority of the infections, those that do not transform into cervical cancer because they are cleared by the body.  Read more…

Girls and Gardasil: the protection game

October 31st, 2009 Betsy No comments

Deirdre Fleming Mercatornet.com

A mother and public health student offers ten reasons not to vaccinate children against a sexually transmitted disease.

Imagine this. You are the parent of an eleven year old daughter. Early in the school year you receive a consent form for the standard Year 7 immunisations: Hepatitis B, Diphtheria-Tetanus-Pertussis, Chickenpox and Human Papillomavirus (HPV). Do you just tick all the boxes, or do you spend time considering the implications of your decision? Read more…