Volume 188 - Issue 10
“Let's not talk about sex”: reconsidering the public health approach to sexually transmissible infections in remote Indigenous populations in Australia
Author: Bryan G Walpole
Med J Aust 2008; 188 (10): 621. || doi: 10.5694/j.1326-5377.2008.tb01811.x
Published online: 19 May 2008
Published online: 19 May 2008
To the Editor: With their radical population-based approach, Bowden and Fethers1 bring a refreshing perspective to the management of sexually transmissible infections (STIs) in Indigenous communities — normally a taboo subject with those at risk and their families.
I recently participated in the federal government’s Northern Territory Emergency Response, and was told, both centrally and locally, that looking for STIs was off limits, as it might destroy the trust of Aboriginal communities. This meant that I could neither enquire about nor examine children or adolescents below the umbilicus. I noted that most teenage girls had contraceptive implants (a good public health measure), but no STI prophylaxis. I think this is a failure of the Response.
References
- Bowden FJ, Fethers K. “Let’s not talk about sex”: reconsidering the public health approach to sexually transmissible infections in remote Indigenous populations in Australia. Med J Aust 2008; 188: 182-184. 0_IJDIHBDJ
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Beds Still Burning: Suicide Should Not Be in the Vocabulary of Children
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Weight Loss Medication Marketing and First Nations People: Disease Awareness or Corporate Profit?
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Beyond Mammography: Sovereignty and Relational Breast Care With Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Women
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Responding to the Revised First Nations Health and Cultural Safety Accreditation Standards in Australian Primary Medical Education: Institutional Principles and Qualities for Meaningful Progress
Sophie Pitt, Ashlee Williams-Barnes, Ryan Dashwood, Keira Edwards, Paul Saunders
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