"This pernicious delusion": law, medicine, and child sexual abuse in early-twentieth-century Scotland

[Sexual abuse of children and venereal diseases: patterns of explanation for gonorrheal infections in children in western european medical discourse 1890-1940]

At the beginning of the twentieth century Western Europe and the USA experienced an increasing interest in combating venereal diseases. Although infections in children with venereal diseases had been registered previously, patterns of explanation for these infections remained opaque. This article analyzes medical discourses with regard to patterns of explanation for gonorrheal infections in children. Although infections with gonorrhea are only possible through sexual contact, the possibility of infections of children through child sexual abuse became suppressed by the pattern of infections through lack of hygiene or in case of notification of the child sexual abuse, became euphemistically depicted.

Halting HIV/AIDS with avatars and havatars: a virtual world approach to modelling epidemics

Background

A major deficit of all approaches to epidemic modelling to date has been the need to approximate or guess at human behaviour in disease-transmission-related contexts. Avatars are generally human-like figures in virtual computer worlds controlled by human individuals.

Methods

We introduce the concept of a "havatar", which is a (human, avatar) pairing. Evidence is mounting that this pairing behaves in virtual contexts much like the human in the pairing might behave in analogous real-world contexts.

Results

We propose that studies of havatars, in a virtual world, may give a realistic approximation of human behaviour in real-world contexts. If the virtual world approximates the real world in relevant details (geography, transportation, etc.), virtual epidemics in that world could accurately simulate real-world epidemics. Havatar modelling of epidemics therefore offers a complementary tool for tackling how best to halt epidemics, including perhaps HIV/AIDS, since sexual behaviour is a significant component of some virtual worlds, such as Second Life.

Conclusion

Havatars place the control parameters of an epidemic in the hands of each individual. By providing tools that everyone can understand and use, we could democratise epidemiology.