Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Mexicans In The U.S And Hiv: Reviewing Social And Cultural Factors, Eduardo Alvarez

Annual Undergraduate Conference on Health and Society

Mexican immigrants in the United States continue to struggle with disproportionate incidences of HIV infection. Behaviors that contributed to the development of AIDS among Mexican immigrants were the lack of condom use, engaging in risky sexual behavior, and not having HIV testing (Martínez Donate, et al., 2015). While these risk factors are preventable, religious and social stigmatization present within the Mexican community generate shame and embarrassment. This discourages Mexican immigrants from seeking health services, such as HIV testing. An estimated 20% of HIV positive Mexican immigrants are unaware of their condition, and contribute to the spread of the virus (Hall …

Point Of Care Technology For Underserved Populations, Anna Maloney

Annual Undergraduate Conference on Health and Society

Point of Care technology is an emerging healthcare field. This technology allows for rapid, inexpensive, on-site testing for otherwise lengthy and costly laboratory tests. Leading infectious diseases can be tested immediately in non-invasive ways similar to using a pregnancy test. This inexpensive, highly portable, and extremely accurate technology should be used for populations that have historically lacked access. Such access would result in immediate cost savings and life savings.

Underserved populations in America such as migrant workers or people living in poverty rarely receive the testing they require. Although clinics for illegal immigrants exist where they are protected and cannot …

Assessing The Readiness Of Nairobi Deaf Youth To Accept A Best-Practice Hiv/Aids Intervention, Ke'ala Morrell

Annual Undergraduate Conference on Health and Society

After nearly forty years of HIV/AIDS research in the global community, data on HIV/AIDS in the Deaf population is still disproportionately neglected. No surveillance system is in place to monitor prevalence, awareness or mode of HIV infection in the Deaf community. Additionally, prevention and education interventions have yet to be tailored to meet the specific needs of this highly vulnerable population.

Purpose: This project attempted to assess the readiness of the Nairobi Deaf youth community to accept a best-practice HIV/AIDS intervention. The broad objective of this research was to assess HIV awareness, perceptions and behaviors of Deaf youth in regards …

Sick With Fear: Popular Challenges To Scientific Authority In The Vaccine Controversies Of The 21st Century, Ellen Watkins

Annual Undergraduate Conference on Health and Society

In the 20th century, vaccines were heralded as one of the greatest medical inventions in history. In the late 1990’s, however, the myth of vaccine-caused autism caught fire. Despite mountains of evidence disproving the link, panicking Americans eschewed vaccines and turned against their physicians. Why did Americans turn their backs on doctors, scientists, and the health industry? This paper follows the vaccine controversy of the last thirty years, looking in particular at the relationship between science and the media. This paper analyzes the contrast between discussion of the hypothesized link in scientific circles and in popular news sources, seeking to …