At the end of 2009, linguists around the world collected words to characterize the first decade of the new millennium. “Aporkalypse” appeared at the top of their list, describing a swine-inspired end of days ushered in by the threat of bird flu. Though playful, this term points to a growing recognition that animals –and their diseases –have determining …
Tag Archives: Infectious disease
Book review: Health Transitions and the Double Disease Burden in Asia and the Pacific
Edited by Milton J. Lewis and Kerrie L. MacPherson
Routledge Publishing, 2012
322 pp., US $155.00 (hardback)
The phrase “double disease burden” is one that has been increasingly used in modern public health discussions. The concept applies to “developing …
Broadsheets: Run-Up to the 2012 AIDS Conference
Broadsheets will keep track of and report on the International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2012) in Washington D.C. between July 22-27. Reports will rely upon the chatter around the venue, and circulating news in social and popular on-line media. We will specifically pay attention to the presence of the organizations whose websites we have been tracking.
Starting with them, tracked sites …
On “Activism”
This article is part of the series: Keywords
As the International AIDS Conference (aka “AIDS 2012”) approaches, it is fitting to consider the meaning of activism in the response to the epidemic. Historically, not only is the conference a venue for sharing scientific findings, program experiences, and policy implications at a huge, global scale (the conference attracts over 25,000 attendees and is broadcast in real time in many …
“Investigating Emerging Biomedical Practices”: A Special Journal Issue
The September 2011 issue of the journal Science, Technology, & Human Values, is a special issue entitled “Investigating Emerging Biomedical Practices.” Situating the articles that compose the issue “within [an] intellectual tradition rooted in the borderlands of anthropology, science studies, and the history of science–altogether heavily influenced by feminism,” Kontopodis, Niewöhner, and Beck write in their introduction that the…
Epidemiology, the “Data Deluge,” and the Problem of “Good” Information
This article is part of the series: Information in the Biosciences
Walking down the halls of a public health agency in the fall of 2009, I quickly became recognizable as the person doing research on information-sharing and sensemaking during infectious disease outbreaks. Two weeks into my tenure, I started being hailed by my academic association and playfully taunted with echoes of my research question: “Hey, Berkeley! Have you figured out the …