Source: British Medical Journal, 2011;343:d7779
Date of publication: 30th November 2011
Publication Type: Observation
In a nutshell: Health campaigning, like much of public health, can be a slow, repetitive business. The media will break a big story once and then tend to lose interest unless a fresh scandal surfaces. But to change culture, opinion, or behaviour the same message may have to be drip fed over many years. And if the story doesn’t lend itself to a cute front page photo the chance of success is remote. Genital warts will never make the headlines in the Daily Mail or indeed any other newspaper—which makes the government’s decision to switch to a multipurpose vaccine against human papillomavirus all the more remarkable.
Length of publication: 1-page observation
