A Sisterhood of Sleuths

OK City and the entire state should be distributing condoms free of charge and by the truck load for a start. This issue of STDs is not going away ever. Time to embrace the problem head on. Someone call Bill & Melinda Gates and ask them for help if OK doesn't collect enough taxes to pay for health prevention and care

Erin Williams and her sisterhood of sleuths are doing a hard job, tracking and treating elusive syphilis sufferers and their partners, that as she says takes a "weird skill set." Erin, your skill set includes the following: expert medical knowledge, intelligence, organizational ability, street savvy, doggedness, teamwork, wisdom, and.... compassion. Twenty-nine years old. Probably not payed a lot, but her worth: her weight in gold.

I recall getting a visit from the US Public Health service back in 1967 as a result of a botched blood test. In those days, the law required that all hospitals test for and, if they didn't treat, that they report untreated cases of apparent STDs. It turned out to be an error, but in the days when the world was curing everything it could with antibiotics getting "a dose" was no longer considered a source of shame, in America at least. Treatment was so simple — although it was still sometimes a pain in the rear — that no one needed to fear it. I heard guys joking and cracking wise about it and trying to see it as one more experience in life. But in those days it was not an incurable family disaster. Before antibiotics, it was so terrifying; the laws about reporting were made very strict and enforcement was a must. I do hope the public health workers are as tough a bunch as they were back in the '60s when some old country doctors (I read) were still giving injections of gold salts because they hadn't heard of antibiotics.

The last paragraph is the key to helping someone who has been beaten down and beaten up in life get the hope to consider a change and the courage to try again, when someone consistently shows up, cares, doesn't preach or shame, and doesn't take rejection personally. That is true for health behaviors, criminal behaviors, poor parenting behaviors, attitudes/behaviors that reinforce poverty and promote choices that work in the moment but have poor consequences in the future. When a person believes that someone sees them, knows a bit about them, cares about them, and wants to help them, THEN hope appears and changes can begin to happen....Not many folks risk their lives for this kind of outreach. Much much harder and riskier than sitting in an office or raising money or writing laws or policies.

It takes a lot of heart, courage and grit to do this job. Thanks for caring enough to do it.

And dangerous. A neighbor just trained for a new job so he could get out of contacting really dangerous people.

She is worth a hundred Wall Street fraudsters. No, make that a thousand.
Thank You, and ALL the Sisters.q

Human beings, the human drama, never cease to amaze me. Just a few moments ago I was totally unaware of this world of professionalism and caring. Now, I see that among all the bad players in society, there's a counter force.

Everything boild down to Good Vs Evil: Excess vs poverty, Corruption vs honesty, selfishness vs selflessness, the Haves-too-much vs the Needy, the Healthy legislating care for the Sick and dying, and all of us watching the drama --through the eyes of journalists, comedians, community leaders and concerned family.

It will be, alas, an endless struggle. It's our nature. But, will it at least get better?

As a retired therapist, I often felt like a detective when I was assessing a patient, asking a lot of very personal questions to arrive at an understanding of the problems and a plan for helping.

"... we won’t give up on them easily.”

That is the most important statement in this article. Add to that, respect and no judgment of the victims and you have the most critical factors in turning this disease and many others like drug addiction and suicide.

Oh yes, include funding and training.

A 400 year old version of this were the female 'searchers' (corpse inspectors) who examined thousands of dead bodies during the Great Plague, with the aim of identifying a cause of death. See 'The Women of the Plague' in the August issue of BBC's History magazine for an interesting read on the roles and responsibilities of women in late 1600 England in the time of the plague.

History may not repeat itself but it sure can run in a parallel universe.

H

What a fascinating insight into the investigator. I am generally uninterested in the "plumbing" of reporting but this article was illuminating.

These courageous women are called "a sisterhood of sleuths" in the article. I think describing them as a host of angels might be nearer to the truth. It is an amazing story about a wonderfully brave and caring group of people. Thanks for letting us know about them.

This quote from Ms. Hickman is the essence of Real Love. It's dirty. It's grttiy. It does not give up.

“The people we see don’t get a lot of caring in their lives,” she replied. “If we go to see them over and over, that builds its own kind of trust. It shows that we care about their health. And that we won’t give up on them easily.”

I wish the journalist hadn't interjected herself into the story, which is interesting in its own right.