Limning the Semantic Frontier of Informed Consent

It is the researcher’s responsibility to provide accurate, complete, and unbiased verbal and written information yet, as this essay discusses, challenges to meaningful research consent abound in the communication between researcher and subject. This discussion of these challenges is far from exhaustive, but it will flag some of the potholes that researchers must anticipate on the sometimes rocky road to eliciting meaningful consent. These hazards include unfamiliar scientific terms and connotations, divergent conceptions of medical history and science, the conscious and unconscious deploying of rosy adjectives with which scientists sometimes “sell” a study in lieu of describing it, semiotics that magnify the therapeutic illusion, and legal maneuvers that bypass consent altogether

Harriet A. Washington, Medical Ethicist and Author

Harriet Washington is an award-winning medical writer and editor, and the author of the best-selling book, Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present, and Deadly Monopolies: The Shocking Corporate Takeover of Life Itself. In her work, she focuses mainly upon bioethics, history of medicine, African American health issues and the intersection of medicine, ethics and culture. Medical Apartheid, the first social history of medical research with African Americans, was chosen as one of Publishers\u27 Weekly Best Books of 2006. The book also won the National Book Critics Circle Nonfiction Award, a PEN award, 2007 Gustavus Myers Award, and Nonfiction Award of the Black Caucus of the American Library Association. Experts have praised its scholarship, accuracy and insights. Her other books include, Parkinson\u27s Disease, a monograph published by Harvard Health Publications, Living Healthy with Hepatitis C and she is co-author of Health and Healing for African Americans. Ms. Washington has also worked as a laboratory technician, as a medical social worker, as the manager of a poison-control center/suicide hotline, and has performed as an oboist and as a classical-music announcer for WXXI-FM, a PBS affiliate in Rochester, N.Y. She lives in New York City with her husband Ron DeBose.https://thekeep.eiu.edu/humanitiescenter_transformations1213/1002/thumbnail.jp

The Well Curve

Pseudo-nitzschia and ATCV-1 join a panoply of microorganisms that have long been suspected, and sometimes known, to change how well we think. These newcomers are getting attention because they struck in the West, where a functional public health infrastructure allows for disease surveillance and the investigation of mysterious sources of disability. But pathogens that affect cognition have traditionally infected poor people of color in the developing world, so their ravages and long-term effects have been more likely to go unanalyzed and untreated

Harriet A. Washington, Medical Ethicist and Author

Harriet Washington is an award-winning medical writer and editor, and the author of the best-selling book, Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present, and Deadly Monopolies: The Shocking Corporate Takeover of Life Itself. In her work, she focuses mainly upon bioethics, history of medicine, African American health issues and the intersection of medicine, ethics and culture. Medical Apartheid, the first social history of medical research with African Americans, was chosen as one of Publishers\u27 Weekly Best Books of 2006. The book also won the National Book Critics Circle Nonfiction Award, a PEN award, 2007 Gustavus Myers Award, and Nonfiction Award of the Black Caucus of the American Library Association. Experts have praised its scholarship, accuracy and insights. Her other books include, Parkinson\u27s Disease, a monograph published by Harvard Health Publications, Living Healthy with Hepatitis C and she is co-author of Health and Healing for African Americans. Ms. Washington has also worked as a laboratory technician, as a medical social worker, as the manager of a poison-control center/suicide hotline, and has performed as an oboist and as a classical-music announcer for WXXI-FM, a PBS affiliate in Rochester, N.Y. She lives in New York City with her husband Ron DeBose.https://thekeep.eiu.edu/humanitiescenter_transformations1213/1002/thumbnail.jp

Acceptability and sustainability of the WHO focused antenatal care package in Kenya

The objectives of this study were to assess the Kenyan Ministry of Health’s capacity to adapt focused antenatal care (ANC) at the service delivery level so that it can be sustained, and to examine the extent to which adaptation of the package has increased coverage and quality of key ANC services and the overall quality of care received by pregnant women. The study showed that focused ANC is acceptable to both clients and providers and the approach has also received tremendous support from both the government and health development partners. However, the sustainability of the focused ANC package is contingent upon availability of funding, availability of a minimum level of equipment and supplies, competent providers, and a clear policy direction. The study recommends further consultation with key actors (such as pre-service training institutions and professional bodies) to ensure institutionalization and standardization of focused ANC; community mobilization to create awareness about the new services being offered; reorganizing service delivery and client flow within clinics to reduce client waiting time; and training providers in the concept of focused ANC

Understanding the HIV/STI risks and prevention needs of men who have sex with men in Nairobi, Kenya

Despite increasing awareness of the role men who have sex with men (MSM) can play in the dynamics of HIV transmission in Africa, research on MSM in Kenya has been limited. In response to this gap, researchers from the Institute of African Studies at the University of Nairobi and the Horizons and FRONTIERS programs of the Population Council undertook a study of MSM in Nairobi. The overall goals of the study were to understand the extent to which MSM are at risk of HIV and other STIs, identify the factors associated with risk behaviors, and identify MSM sexual health needs in order to develop appropriate interventions. The ease with which this study recruited 500 men through snowball sampling suggests that the population of Kenyan MSM living in Nairobi is larger than is commonly believed. This situation, combined with the existence of risk behaviors, such as unprotected sex, among the study sample may have implications for the development of localized STI and HIV epidemics. The report recommends urgently needed interventions targeted to this population

Flacking for Big Pharma

Drugmakers don’t just compromise doctors; they also undermine top medical journals and skew medical research

The making of the Kenya sexual offenses act, 2006: Behind the scenes

Kenya’s enactment of the Sexual Offenses Bill in 2006 was a milestone in dealing with sexual offenses and gender-based violence. The bill is Kenya’s first legal recognition of the many sex crimes that occur in the country. Among other things, the law criminalizes deliberate transmission of HIV/AIDS and provides rape victims with free medical care and counseling in public institutions. Convicted rapists will now face a minimum sentence of ten years, while a maximum penalty will be life imprisonment. A retrospective study was conducted to document the process leading to the enactment of the law. The objective was to document the sexual offenses law-making process in Kenya, the influence of different actors, and how these interacted with contextual factors to influence the substantive content of the law as well as its enactment. This book explores the circumstances under which the law was formulated and passed, identifies actors and interest groups involved in the law-making process, explores how the law changed over time, and draws lessons learned that could be of interest to other countries intending to invoke similar actions

Toward a New Diversity and the Revitalization of hte Campus Spirit: A Bandung 2000 Conference for Students, Staff and Faculty

In this session, New Diversity programs are designed and proposed, aimed at enabling minority staff, students and faculty the kind of cultural inoculation needed to be able to address the concerns which plague most campuses

Understanding the HIV/STI prevention needs of men who have sex with men in Kenya

Understanding the sexual behaviors of populations who are vulnerable to HIV is an important component in the battle against AIDS. Yet policymakers in developing countries, particularly in Africa, have often overlooked men who have sex with men (MSM) as a vulnerable group because of stigmatization of homosexual behavior and denial of the existence of MSM and the role they may play in HIV transmission. A growing body of literature not only documents the presence of this population in Africa but also the importance of reaching them with information and services to prevent HIV and other sexually transmitted infections (STIs). In response to this gap, researchers from the Institute of African Studies at the University of Nairobi and the Horizons and FRONTIERS Programs of the Population Council undertook a study of MSM in Nairobi. The goals were to understand the extent to which MSM are at risk of HIV and other STIs, identify factors associated with risk behaviors, and determine their sexual health needs to develop appropriate interventions. As this research summary states, targeted interventions, such as confidential counseling and peer education are needed