Reporting epidemics: newspapers, information dissemination and the story of Ebola in the Ugandan district of Luweero.
(25/30)
When an outbreak occurs, the affected population needs timely information in order to make informed decisions on how best to deal with the situation. Most target populations rely on the media for their information and the authorities use the media to disseminate outbreak information. The media, particularly locally based media, is as a result, crucial to public health outcomes. Reports on outbreaks should be as easy to understand as possible. However, there is, at times, a mismatch between the ideal and the practice. In looking at an example of the practice, this opinion hopes to influence the negotiation for the ideal in outbreak reporting. (+info)
Construction of the discourse on dengue fever in the media.
(26/30)
Constructing violence as a public health problem.
(30/30)
Once viewed primarily as a criminal justice problem, violence and its prevention are now often claimed by public health professionals as being within their purview. The author reviewed 282 articles published in public health and medical journals from 1985 through 1995 that discussed violence as a public health problem. She found that while authors tended to identify social and structural causes for violence, they suggested interventions that targeted individuals' attitudes or behaviors and improved public health practice. Her study illuminates the tension between public health professionals' vision of the social precursors of violence and their attempts to apply a traditional set of remedies. In targeting individuals to rid the nation of violence, the public health community is deemphasizing societal causes. (+info)