45 FIVE Opioid abuse and evidence-based practices for a global epidemic Andrea N. Hunt The problem Opium originated in lower Mesopotamia in 3,400 BC and was used in many regions of the world throughout history before making its way to the US. It was not until the 1860s that opium-based drugs, such as morphine, were used by Civil War doctors to treat the pain of wounded soldiers. The Bayer Company later introduced heroin as a cough suppressant and an alternative to morphine, with the US government placing restrictions in the 1910s–1920s that outlawed heroin
149 TweLVe Brazil’s response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic: integrating prevention and treatment elize Massard da Fonseca and Francisco i. Bastos Introduction Brazil’s response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic has been viewed worldwide as one of its most successful policies. This chapter discusses the crucial and evolving role of civil society organisations (CSOs) in the Brazilian response to the AIDS epidemic. Specifically, we explore the responsibility of civil society in shaping AIDS public policy during the late 1980s and 1990s, and these groups’ evolving and
146 AFTERWORD The impact of the COVID-19 epidemic At the time we were revising the proofs of this book, Italy suddenly became one of the countries most hit by Coronavirus (COVID-19). On 9 March 2020, Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte signed a decree implementing a complete lockdown aimed at ‘avoiding any movement of individuals’. Only a small number of ‘essential activities’ remained open: health services, of course, and food stores, as well as the industrial, agricultural and logistic activities linked to these two sectors. Where possible, working at a
This chapter discusses the fieldwork experiences of using participatory methods in studying religious minorities in Plateau State, Nigeria, during the COVID-19 epidemic period. The research, conducted for CREID between February and April 2021, among communities perpetually vulnerable to violent conflict and now the COVID-19 epidemic, helped provide an insight into their experiences and coping mechanisms. This chapter is primarily a discussion of the author’s experience while using specifically the ‘River (or Road) of Life’ and the Participatory Rural Appraisal
39 THREE epidemics, fluctuations and trends: the everyday depiction of teenage pregnancy Introduction Contemporary forms of media are diverse. Internet-based news and information sites, weblogs and podcasts, as well as traditional television programmes, newspapers and magazines, cater for fragmented and varied audiences and have the potential to reach large numbers of people. In this kind of environment, it might be expected that multifaceted and alternative stories of teenage pregnancy and motherhood would emerge. Yet the expansion of media outlets has
117 EIGHT Constructing the obesity epidemic: loose science, money and public health Alison Hann and Stephen Peckham As Cribb has commented (Chapter Two, this volume), the way in which public health problems are constructed can have value judgements embedded in them, and this can feed into policies and practices. This chapter looks at the way obesity has been constructed as a public health ‘problem’. It is argued that not only does it contain masked value judgements, but also the evidence base is weak. The result is a policy which is potentially ‘harmful
Background In 2019, the federal government launched the ‘Ending the HIV Epidemic in the US’ (EHE) initiative, with the goal of reducing new HIV infections in the US by 90% by 2030 ( Fauci et al, 2019 ). To do so, it proposes scaling up key HIV prevention and treatment strategies and engaging communities to improve health equity, mitigate stigma and discrimination, and build public trust ( Fauci et al, 2019 ). We developed a simulation model that can estimate the public health and economic impacts of these strategies ( Collins Jr and Sapiano, 2016 ), helping
39 Two hiV and the family the global hiV/aids epidemic Since the first cases emerged in the early 1980s, HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) and AIDS (acquired immunodeficiency syndrome) have been recognised not only as a health issue, but as a social issue that can have profound effects on people’s sense of self, emotional well-being, relationships with partners, family members and friends and their requirements for care and support. During the early years of the epidemic in the US, Western Europe and other high-income countries, HIV was associated with
Labor market economics is about the effectiveness of the market in allocating people’s own time and abilities. The job of the labor market is matching supply and demand. In an ideal economy, supply of labor continuously rearranges itself to meet the demand for labor, moving from one set of skills to another and from one region to another to clear the global labor market. Demand for labor, too, may move across countries and across sectors to search for cheap and appropriate labor. This global process should be driven by prices, in that the price system brings supply where demand is abundant and, similarly, demand where supply is abundant. There may be situations, however, where the price system fails to deliver that outcome, at least in the short and medium run, and results in unemployment of labor and underutilization of capital. In this case institutional mechanisms may step in to make up for the failings of the market system, driving demand and supply towards each other. This is not an unimportant or easy task; what is at stake are the lives of individuals and firms. Policy makers and legislators, therefore, may need to intervene and devise the best institutional setting to prevent people from remaining unemployed and firms from remaining unstaffed. Quite clearly, the question hinges on the degree of confidence in the price system. The higher the confidence, the weaker the action required; the lower the confidence, the stronger the action required to compensate for the failings of that system.
In this chapter, we examine the nature and extent of this market failure in one segment of the Italian labor market, that of youth.
competency for a paradigm shift. SAGE Open, 18(2). Available at: https://doi. org/10.1177/2158244018772888 Oliver, J.E. (2006) Fat Politics: The Real Story behind America’s Obesity Epidemic. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Pomeranz, J.L. (2008) A historical analysis of public health, the law, and stigmatized social groups: the need for both obesity and weight bias legislation. Obesity, 16(S2): S93-103. Available at: https://doi. org/10.1038/oby.2008.452 Puhl, R.M. and Heuer, C.A. (2009) The stigma of obesity: a review and update. Obesity, 17: 941–6. Available at
