Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: HIV

  • Preparing for a zombie apocalypse

    Larry KerrCarlisle, Pennsylvania, United States What can we learn from a Zombie Apocalypse? The first thing to learn? It could happen. Anyone who has been on this earth for a length of time knows that when a person says something cannot possibly happen, it almost certainly will. Even more worrisome is the disclaimer that if…

  • Yes, I’m positive

    George W. ChristopherAda, Michigan, United States A quick glance at the afternoon clinic schedule revealed that the next patient was scheduled to “Rule out HIV infection.” I knocked on the door, entered the exam room, and began introductions. The patient was young, anxious, and struggling to maintain a stoic façade. “I have HIV infection.” “Are…

  • Healing in post-genocide Rwanda

    Vigneshwar SubramanianNivetha SubramanianCleveland, Ohio, United States In April 1994, one of the largest genocides since the Holocaust erupted in Rwanda as the Hutu ethnic majority conducted a targeted slaughter of the Tutsi people.1 In a span of just over 100 days, over 800,000 people were killed.2 Infectious diseases such as HIV ran rampant, a consequence…

  • Mrs. M’s refusal

    Ladan GolestanehBronx, New York, United States My role as a physician includes foregoing a prescriptive approach to some patients in favor of a supportive one. Yielding to a belief system that does not fit the structure of my many years of training feels like a personal failure. But sometimes I know I have to listen…

  • Historical reflections on cause, responsibility and blame in medicine

    William AlburyNew England, Armidale, Australia Debauchery and disease In the early years of British settlement in Australia the colonial authorities regarded drunkenness as one of the major evils of the day. Their preoccupation with this social problem was mirrored by the concern of the colony’s medical men with drunkenness as a cause of illness. In…

  • Confidentiality and privacy in public hospitals

    David O. IraborIbadan, Nigeria In Africa, as elsewhere in the world, healthcare professionals are bound by ethical codes not to disclose information given to them by their patients. Yet despite the best of efforts, neither confidentiality nor privacy can always be easily guaranteed, as exemplified by a look at problems encountered at a public hospital…

  • Reflections on the practice of treatment for drug dependence

    Carla TreloarAustralia The funeral was on a stifling January day in Sydney. The formal, stiff clothes I had put on that morning were damp and limp within minutes outside the air-conditioned car. I greeted the few people I knew who were milling outside the chapel awaiting the arrival of the family and the undertaker’s car.…

  • Kindred paradigms: Community arts and health advocacy in HIV/AIDS activism

    Niyi AwofesoAnu RammohanAustralia, Perth Community arts involve an understanding of communities and how art can function as an agent of social change. Community artists employ a broad range of genres and disciplines to reach a wide audience. Defined broadly as the work of communities of people committed to improving their individual and collective circumstances through…