Dissemination: Making Results Known Dissemination of the Population Council’s findings takes many forms: meetings with policymakers and program managers around the world; presentations and distribution of findings at major public health, social science, and biomedical conferences; media briefings and interviews; publication of books, working papers, and two internationally recognized, peer-reviewed journals, Population and Development Review and Studies in Family Planning; and its Web site. In addition to scientific and scholarly journals, Council research and experts are appearing more and more in the mass media. A few recent examples: In a December 2004 Chicago Tribune series on child marriage that eventually ran in over a dozen papers, articles cited Council research and quoted Judith Bruce, director of the Gender, Family, and Development program, on “the health consequences and human cost” of child marriage. Also in December, a dozen news outlets including the Atlanta Constitution and Yahoo’s Health Day, carried “Male Birth Control Moves Closer to Reality,” featuring the Council’s research with implants containing the synthetic male hormone known as MENT®; another article on MENT appeared in the Detroit News. In its February review of birth control options, Consumer Reports quoted an OB-GYN professor on the Mirena® intrauterine system: “It’s highly effective, completely reversible...” CR went on to say, “It lasts for five years, but a woman can have it removed at any time and she doesn’t have to wait before trying to get pregnant.” Recent research by members of the Council’s International Committee for Contraception Research and other scientists was cited in articles in May on emergency contraceptive (EC) pills such as Plan B, the current subject of heated debate. The researchers concluded that such pills appear to work by interfering with ovulation, preventing fertilization of the egg; they do not appear to disrupt the implantation of a fertilized egg in the uterus. “People mix up [EC] with abortion, and it is really inaccurate,” Régine Sitruk-Ware, executive director of product research and development, explained to Wired magazine. The Nation cited “new research by the Population Council” in a pro-EC essay, and an editorial in the Eugene, Oregon, Register-Guard called the studies “good news for pharmacists who fear that filling prescriptions for [EC] may be contributing to a possible abortion” and noted, “There is no downside. This is a drug that will significantly reduce the demand for abortions.” 
Population Council educator Valquiria Barbosa explains materials developed for truckers to U.S. Ambassador to Brazil John J. Danilovich, who visited “Health on the Road” in January. An HIV-prevention project for truck drivers on the Brazilian border, the project combines service delivery and community outreach. It had provided services to some 1,800 truckers in the previous 15 months. (See Momentum, June 2004: http://www.popcouncil.org/publications/momentum/default.htm)
Photo credit: Cristina Ogura |
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