In this episode of MicrobeWorld Video we visit the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, D.C., for the opening of "An Iconography of Contagion," an art exhibition featuring more than 20 public health posters from the 1920s to the 1990s. Covering infectious diseases such as malaria, tuberculosis, AIDS, gonorrhea, and syphilis, the posters come from North America, Europe, Asia, and Africa. This video features interviews with J.D. Talasek, Director of Cultural Programs of the National...

Background Large state tobacco control programs have been shown to reduce smoking and would be expected to affect health care costs. We investigate the effect of California's large-scale tobacco control program on aggregate personal health care expenditures in the state. Methods and Findings Cointegrating regressions were used to predict (1) the difference in per capita cigarette consumption between California and 38 control states as a function of the...

In a paper published in June in PLoS Medicine, a controlled trial at three urban STD clinics, Lee Warner and colleagues found that showing an educational video in waiting rooms reduced new infections by approximately 10%. The educational video relating to this paper is provided here. Warner L, Klausner JD, Rietmeijer CA, Malotte CK, O'Donnell L, et al. (2008) Effect of a Brief Video Intervention on Incident Infection among Patients Attending Sexually Transmitted Disease Clinics . PLoS...