There is academic space for the multidisciplinary development of the public health in Spain beyond the health professions. The identification of the specific competencies of each degree related with activities on public health reveal what are the contents to be in included in each syllabus.

The benefits of HIV treatment (Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy [HAART]) have been less apparent in injecting drug users (IDUs), most probably as a result of poor adherence to treatment. We explored factors related to HIV treatment adherence as reported by 23 IDU-HIV patients and nine health professionals from healthcare services in Alicante and Valencia, Spain. We carried out a qualitative study based on personal interviews. Health professionals reported the lack of coordination among hospital services and difficulties in accessibility to nonspecialized services for IDU-HIV patients as relevant factors for treatment adherence. Their perception of a patient's likelihood of treatment adherence was also considered to influence the decision to prescribe HAART. A better treatment adherence was reported by those IDU-HIV patients with a good doctor-patient relationship and by women with family responsibilities. Patients considered the side effects of HIV treatment, the lack of social support, and the active use of recreational drugs as relevant factors to explain incompliance. Interventions and training of health providers should be aimed at the reduction of barriers in patient-provider communication and the overcoming of stereotypes, thus avoiding discriminatory attitudes in treatment in this vulnerable population.

The new genetics, or the impetus given to this discipline by the Genome Project, aims to a change of paradigm of the Health Sciences. This change is postulated from a phenotypic approach to a genotypic one, thereby excluding the influence of the environment, which could seriously undermine the grounds for the development and exercise of Public Health. Since the beginning of the genome project, information on genetic discoveries has frequently been reported in the mass media. Metaphors are often used by geneticists and journalists to convey the complex concepts of genetic research for which there are no equivalents in the lay language. The media do not merely shape the social agenda but also provide the space in which health culture is constructed. We present the results of a preliminary study exploring the metaphors used in the three most widely-read national daily newspapers in Spain, namely ABC, El Pais and El Mundo, when reporting news of the new genetics. The possible consequences of the natural history of these metaphors, or the process through which figurative terms acquire a literal meaning, are discussed. A preliminary taxonomy for the metaphors identified was developed. Fifty-one out of 342 identified headings (14.8%) contained metaphors. Strategic metaphors such as program, control, code, map, and puzzle, were the most commonly used, followed by teleological ones such as mystery or God language and finally war-like metaphors such as attack, defeat, and capture. The three groups of metaphors are characterized by an attempt to giving intentionality to genes. Strategic metaphors predominated over teleological and war-like ones and thus a technocratic perspective could form the basis of the future construction of health culture.

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Spain is in the initial stages of developing public policy on obesity and, as yet, there are no winners and losers among those concerned, which may explain why economic costs seem to be relatively unimportant for the stake-holders, opening a window of opportunity for the development of regulatory policies.