A year old post of mine: Aids epidemic is a 'global disaster' and the situation is worse for Georgia today. I have been increasingly concerned that Georgia public health was ignoring Georgia's STD epidemic. Last year, Margaret Bean, our public health nursing director told me "Marilyn, people don't die from HIV anymore." This horrifying statement came shortly after Dr. Wade Sellers made the statement to me that "people don't die from chlamydia."
Georgia's STD epidemic is a disaster of epidemic proportions. I looked up the UN definition of a disaster and it is defined as"an event beyond the scope of any single society to cope with." So we must ask, is the state of Georgia coping with the epidemic of STD's among its women, its youth, its minorities? Hardly. What started out as alarming numbers of STD's in our state turned into an outright disaster as our politicians and public health leaders (didn't or couldn't?) no, they refused to cope with the epidemic. What could have been controllable with concentrated, accurate education (of both the public and our public health leaders) and testing has turned into a disaster. Just in my 10 short years in public health, I watched in shock as our STD rates quadrupled-and now . . . it is made worse because even testing for STD's can be impossible to obtain.
Aids epidemic is a 'global disaster' http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7474600.stm
No comments:
Post a Comment