An End to Itchiness?

Check out my latest on Medscape's the Differential: An End to Itchiness?

Positive Message from a Pornographic Film

By Alexa Mieses

The New York Times reported today that a South African producer recently made the country's first all-black pornographic film. More than just the first all-black film, the film features a message about safe sex practices as the film's stars were not only tested for HIV but used condoms on screen. The New York Times also said that this film not only answers South Africans' complaints that all adult entertainment comes from the US or Europe, but it also encourages condom use in a country where a negative attitude about condoms still remains.

Despite the industry's adherence to regular HIV testing, the virus is still able to spread among the industry's performers. In 2004, an American male adult entertainment performer transmitted the HIV virus to three female performers. In October 2010, another performer tested positive for HIV, causing Vivid Entertainment, a popular adult entertainment company, to halt production. Read more here. Perhaps the use of condoms in pornographic films in the US would not only help protect the performers, as testing is not 100% sufficient to cease transmission of HIV, but it would also encourage viewers to engage in safer sexual practices.

Flashblood: Part of the Cycle

By Alexa Mieses

Today I read a rather disturbing article in the New York Times. Recent reports indicate that in some parts of Africa, intravenous drug users are injecting other addicts' blood in order to get high. This practice has been coined "flashblood." The first thing that popped into my mind was the effect this practice has on the transmission of HIV. While the spread of HIV is dangerous and a serious matter, I could not help but wonder about the socio-econimic factors that may explain why one uses drugs in the first place.

Published in Addiction, a cross-sectional study was conducted in Tanzania with 169 female intravenous drug users. The study found that the women who used flashblood were more likely to live in short-term housing, to have been raped by a family member as a child, to have smoked marijuana at a younger age, and to have contaminated water.

Poverty often has many implications that stretch beyond contaminated drinking water. Poverty is an umbrella for a vicious cycle in which it is hard to determine which comes first. Does a child live in a broken home because he or she is impoverished, or is it difficult to rise out of poverty because he or she lives in a broken home? The answer is both are sometimes true. Perhaps a woman started using heroin because she smoked marijuana at a younger age. Perhaps she smoked marijuana at a younger age to numb the pain of her rape. Perhaps her father raped her because he was drunk. Perhaps her father was an alcoholic because he could not find a job. But why can't he find a job? You can see how the cycle continues.

Even here in Santiago, Chile, where I am spending my summer volunteering with VE Global (VE), the issue of poverty comes up every day. According to the CIA Chilean country-profile, the richest 10% of Chileans possess 41.7% of Chile's wealth, while the poorest 10% possess just 1.6%. The children with whom VE volunteers work often come from poverty and broken homes. Many have been sexually, physically and emotionally abused by their family members, or their families are unable to care for them due to a lack of resources. These children often go on to use drugs and have children at a very young age, thus proliferating the cycle. How can we break this vicious cycle? Even if the work of VE is not the "cure-all" answer, I believe it is a step in the right direction.

Image from www.maryscomfort.org