scholarly journals Identification of Priority Areas for Increased Testing Using Geospatial Mapping of Incident HIV Cases Near Charleston, South Carolina

2019 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
pp. 117863371987075
Author(s):  
Ryan Gedney ◽  
Kimberly Butler Willis ◽  
Aaron O’Brien ◽  
Michael Luciano ◽  
Katherine J Richardson ◽  
...  

Analysis of disease incidence using geospatial mapping techniques can enhance targeted public health efforts in resource-limited settings. While data for HIV incidence are readily available for some metropolitan regions, there is no existing resource that maps HIV incidence geospatially for Charleston, South Carolina and surrounding counties. To facilitate the public health approach to address the HIV epidemic in this region, we used data collected by the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control (SC-DHEC) from 2014 to 2015 to generate local geospatial maps of disease incidence and identify specific areas that may benefit from increased testing and educational efforts. We identified specific zip codes in which there were a high number of cases from patients residing in those areas, but a low number of providers reporting new cases, and we describe ongoing efforts to address this disparity. This analysis identifies a local, collaborative approach to address the HIV epidemic using routinely collected surveillance data.

Author(s):  
Ren-Zong QIU

LANGUAGE NOTE | Document text in Chinese; abstract also in English.本文討論了艾滋病在中國大陸傳播引起的倫理和政策問題。作者首先指出在預防控制艾滋病問題上中國正處在十字路口。挨著作者分析了中國會不會成為艾滋病和艾滋病病毒感染的高發國,討論了制訂有效而合乎倫理的艾滋病防治政策的理論預設和價值以及評價政策的倫理學框架,討論了艾滋病治療和預防中的倫理和政策問題。The AIDS/HIV prevention and control in China is at crossroad. At present, there are insufficient grounds for us to say that China will definitely become a country with a high HIV infection rate in the future. However, we have much less sufficient grounds for saying that China will never reach that stage. On the contrary, we have much more reason to say that it is very probable for China to become a country with high HIV infection rate if we leave the current policy unchanged. The reasons are: economic reforms associated with large scale population movements in unprecedented way; proliferation of all sorts of high risk behavior, presence of other STDs which facilitate the spread of HIV; the risk of iatrogenic spread through untested blood transfusion; the "sex revolution" with changes in patterns of sex behaviour and increased casual sex, multiple sex partners among the younger generation; most Chinese still do not know how to protect themselves; and the ethical and legal atmosphere necessary for effectively preventing the HIV epidemic has not been formed.The conventional public health approach is not sufficient to prevent or control an HIV epidemic. When the cases of HIV infection were detected one by one in China, health professionals and programmers believed that they could take a conventional public health approach to cope with HIV epidemic. But they are wrong. HIV infection is an epidemic so special that the conventional public health measures such as testing, reporting, contact tracing, isolation are inadequate or ineffective to control the epidemic. HIV is often spread among those groups who are usually marginalized or stigmatized by society through behaviours both confidential or private.An effective policy of preventing HIV cannot be insensitive to ethical issues. However, many of health professionals and programmers bypassed ethical issues emerged in the prevention of the HIV epidemic. Even some health educators, sexologists and officials believe that "AIDS is the punishment by God" or "AIDS is the punishment for promiscuity". For them suffering AIDS is not morally irrelevant, and thus the ancient conception of disease was revived. But this conception of disease has already proved wrong and harmful to the treatment and prevention of any disease, especially to HIV. The consequence entailed by this conception is that the IIIV positive and AIDS patients were discriminated against and stigmatized. When their positive serological status was disclosed, they were faced with the risk of being expelled from school or fired from working unit, even rejected for admission into hospital, and their tights to confidentiality and privacy were often infringed upon. If all these ethical issues cannot be properly treated, how can those persons in danger or risk get access to information, services, education, counselling and techniques necessary to prevent HIV infection? One Chinese adage says that "You cannot have fish and bear palm both". In the prevention of HIV epidemic we have to have the protection of public health and the safeguarding of individual rights.For controlling HIV epidemic what we need is not a repressive law, but a supportive law to build a supportive environment in treatment and prevention of AIDS/HIV. So the policy and law involving AIDS/ HIV should be reformed.DOWNLOAD HISTORY | This article has been downloaded 19 times in Digital Commons before migrating into this platform.


2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sonia Tetlow ◽  
Brian Gurbaxani ◽  
Corinne Graffunder ◽  
Connor Owen ◽  
Diem Tran ◽  
...  

Abstract Objective To advance public health support for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s smoke-free rule, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention collaborated with the Georgia Institute of Technology to develop a geospatial mapping tool. The objective was to create a tool state and local public health agencies could use to tailor smoke-free educational materials and cessation interventions for specific public housing development resident populations. Results The resulting “Extinguish Tool” includes an interactive map of U.S. public housing developments (PHDs) and healthcare facilities that provides detailed information on individual PHDs, their proximity to existing healthcare facilities, and the demographic characteristics of residents. The tool also estimates the number of PHD residents who smoke cigarettes and calculates crude estimates of the potential economic benefits of providing cessation interventions to these residents. The geospatial mapping tool project serves as an example of a collaborative and innovative public health approach to protecting the health and well-being of the nation’s two million public housing residents, including 760,000 children, from the harms of tobacco smoking and secondhand smoke exposure in the places where they live, play, and gather.


2002 ◽  
Vol 8 (7) ◽  
pp. 649-650 ◽  
Author(s):  
Scott M. Hammer ◽  
Tomris Türmen ◽  
Basil Vareldzis ◽  
Jos Perriens

The Lancet ◽  
2006 ◽  
Vol 368 (9534) ◽  
pp. 505-510 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles F Gilks ◽  
Siobhan Crowley ◽  
René Ekpini ◽  
Sandy Gove ◽  
Jos Perriens ◽  
...  

Crisis ◽  
1999 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 28-35 ◽  
Author(s):  
Annie Mino ◽  
Arnaud Bousquet ◽  
Barbara Broers

The high mortality rate among drug users, which is partly due to the HIV epidemic and partly due to drug-related accidental deaths and suicides, presents a major public health problem. Knowing more about prevalence, incidence, and risk factors is important for the development of rational preventive and therapeutic programs. This article attempts to give an overview of studies of the relations between substance abuse, suicidal ideation, suicide, and drug-related death. Research in this field is hampered by the absence of clear definitions, and results of studies are rarely comparable. There is, however, consensus about suicidal ideation being a risk factor for suicide attempts and suicide. Suicidal ideation is also a predictor of suicide, especially among drug users. It is correlated with an absence of family support, with the severity of the psychosocial dysfunctioning, and with multi-drug abuse, but also with requests for treatment. Every clinical examination of a drug user, not only of those who are depressed, should address the possible presence of suicidal ideation, as well as its intensity and duration.


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