Concussions in Sports and Return to Play Guidlines Essay

Concussions in Sports and Return to Play Guidlines - Essay Example He hit his head on the turf, lost consciousness and when he regained consciousness, he remembered nothing of the incident. On the same day, in another game, Troy Aikman, one of the starting quarterbacks had to leave the game when he was kneed in the head. His condition was also termed as a concussion. Two players getting hit in the head on the same day is a rare occurrence because mild head trauma is limited to 2% and 10% for any athlete and this calls for some attention to incidence of concussion in various sports. The word 'Concussion' induces horrible images of permanent brain damage. But there is a) low probability of an athlete being hit in the head and 2) the return and full recovery are often rapid. However there have been more complicated cases where effects of concussions lasted a very long time. (e.g., Barth et al., 1983; Rimel, Giordani, Barth, Boll, & Jane, 1981). A growing body of literature, thought not vast yet, focuses on the occurrence and effects of concussion in various contact sports including boxing, football, and soccer. It was found that while professional athletes can serve as good cases studies for various related researches, they usually do not report every injury making it difficult to gather accurate data on the incidence of injuries in sports. Athletes underreport for fear of sabotaging their chances of playing in coming games. (Gerberich, Priest, Boen, Staub, & Maxwell, 1983). What is a Concussion or Mild Trauma The study of concussion in sports is relatively new considering that literature available is barely 15-20 years old. Attention is being paid to the process by which concussion cases mild head injury and the subsequent post concussive symptoms that result. Concussion or mild head injury refers to blow to the head which may or may not be followed by loss of consciousness but causing an alteration in awareness. Though no serious lesions are noticed on brain in the case of concussions, some contusions may be found on the frontal and temporal lobes. The white matter in the brain is affected and some shearing might be caused to neuronal axons (Duckett & Duckett, 1993). Acute and chronic alterations in neurochemical functions are also reported following a head injury (Dixon, Taft, & Hayes, 1993). The problem with CT and MRI scans is that while they can detect serious signs of severe injury such as swelling or bleeding, they may fail to notice lesions caused by concussion. Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) is used to measure and categorize injury. With a score of 13 or above for example, injury is considered mild. However while this scale along with other factors just as length of unconsciousness and length of stay in the hospital are used to categorize concussion and resulting head injury, there is still a serious lack of consensus

Human Trafficking and Sex Tourism in Latin America Essay

Human Trafficking and Sex Tourism in Latin America - Essay Example Brazil is one of the countries in the Latin America mentioned in many international reports to have experienced blossoming sex tourism and human trafficking. The tremendous development of sex tourism and human trafficking in Brazil attributes to various historical, political, economic and social factors. Currently, serious cases of children involvement in commercial sex have gained an upward gradient as many of the participants are under-educated or totally illiterate. Evolution of the Menace According to Hannum, sex tourism in Latin America evolved as a result of increased demand for sex among the wealthy Europeans who travelled to Latin America to obtain cheap sex from the regional women. The evolution of sex tourism in the Latin American countries also relates to the establishment of military bases of foreign armies in those regions. The British armies are held as major participants in the evolution sex tourism in the Latin America. In the views of Hannum, governments of the Latin American countries like Brazil resolved to support tourism in their specific countries as this was one of the ways to generate massive revenues. Promotion of tourism in these areas coupled with the increase in number of commercial sex workers desperate for the foreign European currencies. Sex tourism as per the current statistics has grown to a multibillion dollar industry in Brazil. However, most of the revenues gathered from the sector do reach the government in either ways (Hannum). The industry encompasses women, males and international clients who either come to obtain sex or to sell their sex to respective consumers. Current Status, Trends and Predisposing Factors Hannun in reference to the reports of End Child Prostitution, Child Pornography and Child Trafficking (ECPAT), estimates that child sex tourism in Brazil rose to 500,000 in the year 1994. This is number is exceptional to Brazil alone without putting into count similar cases in other Latin American countries. Hannun reports that research conducted by the Predo Foundation averred that most incidents of prostitution among children in the larger Latin America correlate to regional incapability to care for its population. Reports indicate that most children resort to prostitution as an alternative way to earning a living. In addition, most of the children engaged in prostitution in the Latin American countries, specifically Brazil are victims of civil conflicts who faced abusive families. Hannum further demonstrates that increase in child sex tourism in Brazil links to the growing dislike of the old sex workers feared to have infections of sexually transmitted disease. Moreover, Hannun confirms that child sex tourism in Brazil and entire Latin America is factored by sex clients’ feeling of freedom from their social cultural rules that restrict the practice. The rigorous growth of child sex tourism in Brazil also relates to the increased media advertisements of jobs that lure desperate childr en to apply for such rare vacancies in their respective countries (Hannum). Advertisements of luxurious free travel have also been one of the ways used by dealers in the sex tourism industry to hunt for children and other sex tourism practitioners. Increase in sex tourism in Brazil also links to the wide internet advertisement of sexual pictures that trigger the urge for sex among the