Children’s health and social theory of risks: Insights from the British Measles, Mumps and Rubella (MMR) controversy
Children are passive recipients of medical decisions; therefore, parents who are conscious of good parenting practices ensure they make proper medical decisions on behalf of their children. The decisions taken on behalf of every child with regard to medical examinations, implies the different difference in child health related conditions. Amidst various advices from private and public sectors, parents trust the guidance given by medical practitioners than any other sector (Casiday 1). However, there are both social and biological reasons that determine a parent’s decision on the vaccination of their children. Nevertheless, it should be noted that there are contradictory information on the effects of such vaccinations and other medical procedures on children. There are also uncertainty of the outcomes of these vaccinations, which makes different parents decide differently. Government and health departments should seek to provide universal information on the vaccinations that children receive in order to allow parents make the correct decisions for the children.
AIDS Denialism and Public Health Practice
Despite the sensitization on the HIV/AIDS pandemic and its widespread effects, some set of individuals deny the commonplace belief. According to them, Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) does not cause Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS). They assert that the virus is just a harmless passenger virus. Secondly, they strongly deny Anti Retroviral Drugs (ARVs) are useful in the fight against HIV/AIDS (Chigwedere 1). Finally, they do not support the idea that AIDS is responsible for the thousands of South African deaths. However, there are evidence based research showing that these assertions are wrong. Medical research have established the connections of HIV and AIDS. Statistical data also show that AIDS is the leading killer disease in the world. In my opinion, these denialists are misguiding the populations and should be stopped from spreading their information to the public. This could reduce death rates since HIV infected individuals would seek ARVs and reduce death rates.
Work Cited
Pride Chigwedere M. Essex. AIDS Denialism and Public Health Practice. Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2010. Web. 8 January 2010
Rachel Elizabeth Casiday. Children’s health and the social theory of risk: Insights from the
British measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) controversy. University of Durham, Stockton-on-Tees, UK. Web. 30 May 2007
