The beneficial effect of a journalist's death on organ transplantation and hepatitis B vaccination

Tekin Akpolat1 and Ali Emin Aydin2

1 Department of Nephrology, Ondokuz Mayis Universitesi, Tip Fakultesi, Nefroloji Bilim Dali, Samsun 2 Department of General Surgery, Istanbul Universitesi, Istanbul Tip Fakultesi, Genel Cerrahi Anabilim Dali, Çapa-Istanbul, 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 5–7% among normal population [2].

Nurcan Çakiro{image}lu, 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{image}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 1Go).


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Table 1. Numbers of cadaveric renal transplantation (data from Transplant Centers Coordination Association) and numbers of sold hepatitis B vaccines (data from International Medical Statistics),

 
There are indications of an increase in other organ transplantations as well. There may also be other causes for these increments, but we think the major cause was the increased interest by media and public in organ transplantation and hepatitis B vaccination. This observation shows the effect and role of the media on the popularization of community-related health issues.

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

  1. Weber F, Philipp T, Broelsch CE, Lange R. The impact of television on attitudes towards organ donation-a survey in a German urban population. Nephrol Dial Transplant1999; 14: 2315–2318[Abstract/Free Full Text]
  2. Mistik R, Balik I. Türkiye'de viral hepatitlerin epidemiyolojisi: Bir meta analiz. In: Kiliçturgay K, ed. Viral Hepatit '98. Deniz Ofset, Istanbul: 1998: 9–39




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