Stigma and Disease in Mozambique

Hey all, although this may not be a biologically oriented article, I think it's important for us to keep tabs on public perception of viruses in general, in this case perception of the sources of disease. Particularly in the case of HIV, perception about the origins of a disease can have a great effect upon efforts in prevention and public health approaches to fight the disease. It would be interesting to attempt to incorporate stigma, spread by people such as the bishop in this article, into some sort of quantifiable variable in epidemiological calculations about the spread of disease, like R-naught values that determine if a disease is likely to become epidemic. At the very least, this article can help us realize the importance of having the right information, and maybe demonstrate the importance of putting the things we learn in this class into some sort of applicable efforts. Don't kill your computer screen if the article's too frustrating!

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20999747/

Jon Dyal