1 Department of Nephrology, Ondokuz Mayis Universitesi, Tip Fakultesi, Nefroloji Bilim Dali, Samsun
2 Department of General Surgery, stanbul Universitesi,
stanbul Tip Fakultesi, Genel Cerrahi Anabilim Dali, Çapa-
stanbul, Turkey
Sir,
We have read the interesting and informative article by Weber et al. about the impact of television on attitudes towards organ donation [1]. We wish to report a personal observation on health and the media.
Hepatitis B infection and a limited number of cadaveric grafts for organ transplantation are well known health problems in Turkey. The population of Turkey is about 65 million and the prevalence of hepatitis B surface antigenaemia is 57% among normal population [2].
Nurcan Çakirolu, a journalist, had been diagnosed with acute hepatitis B infection in September 1997 and she had died in October 13 because of fulminant hepatitis. Due to Nurcan Çakiro
lu's popularity as a journalist her death ignited many interpretations, and informative programmes about organ transplantation and hepatitis B vaccination began to appear on newspapers and TV channels. Following this incident, the numbers of organ transplantation and hepatitis B vaccination have increased in parallel to the interest in media and public (Table 1
).
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Widespread discussion of health problems in newspapers and TV programmes may lead to better awareness and perhaps education of people on health issues as well as achieving successful health related campaign activities.
References