Health related News and Articles.
The East Bay Regional Park District has applied for a Community Transformation Grant from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to expand health programs for youth, focusing on fighting childhood obesity. The grant money would establish the “Get Outdoors! (GO!) Network for Kids Health,” a multiagency collaboration led by the park district....
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A benefit breakfast for the Northern California Breathmobile, sponsored by Prescott-Joseph Center for Community Enhancement, will be held 8:30 a.m., Wednesday, Sept. 19, at Nile Hall, 1223 Preservation Park in Oakland. According to Dr. Burns, the Breathmobile helps fight against asthma by keeping kids in school classrooms and out of hospital emergency rooms. Alameda...
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To commemorate September as Sickle Cell Awareness Month, the American Red Cross is seeking blood donors from the African American community through the organization’s Blue Tie Tag program. The Blue Tie Tag program is a blood donor recruitment initiative designed to increase the diversity of the local blood supply and help provide better blood...
Read more →By Elizabeth Fernandez For two decades, asthma treatment for millions of people with a milder form of the disease has consisted of daily inhaled steroid medicine to reduce inflammation. Now, a new study has found that asthmatics who take the low-dose medication as a daily routine do no better than those who turn to...
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The health care law – the Affordable Care Act – has saved consumers an estimated $2.1 billion on health insurance premiums, according to a new report released this week by the Department of Health and Human Services. For the first time ever, new rate review rules in the health care law prevent insurance companies...
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Bay Area nonprofit leader and cardiac surgeon Dr. Nilas Young is being recognized as a “changemaker who has dramatically improved the lives of children around the world” and for “innovating life-changing nonprofit initiatives benefitting the world’s most vulnerable children.” Young is founder and medical director of the Oakland-based Heart to Heart International Children’s Medical...
Read more →The fifth annual National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) Family-to-Family Education Program starts this week at Grace Lutheran Church at 2369 Barrett Ave. in Richmond. The free 12-week course, which runs through Dec. 6, covers the major mental illnesses, including schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, bipolar disorder, panic disorder, borderline personality disorder, major depression and obsessive-compulsive...
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The new West County Health Center held its grand opening this week at 13601 San Pablo Ave. (near Vale Road) in San Pablo, offering primary and specialty care that includes well-baby visits and immunizations and will soon be expanded to evening and weekend care. The Obama administration kicked in a $12 million grant to...
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The U.S. is on track to have its biggest whooping cough epidemic in 60 years, with more than 21,000 cases already reported in 2012. The highly contagious and potentially fatal disease, officially known as pertussis, starts with cold symptoms and progresses to coughing bouts severe enough to leave patients gasping for air. Yvonne Maldonado,...
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The AIDS Healthcare Foundation announced this week it will back a ballot initiative in San Francisco that directs city officials to “…employ all opportunities that the municipal government possesses to bring down the price of prescription drugs.” The proposed measure comes on heels of the FDA approval this week of the Bay Area’s Gilead...
Read more →By Dr. Chiledum A. Ahaghotu, M.D Prostate cancer is the leading type of cancer in men in the United States, with over 240,000 men diagnosed and 30,000 thousand dying from it each year. Also, for reasons that are not completely understood, African-American men have the highest rates of prostate cancer in the U.S, as...
Read more →By David Sayen For patients experiencing a medical emergency, the best thing to do is get to the nearest hospital. But if you need non-emergency treatment, and you have time to plan, how do you find a hospital that best fits your needs? A good place to start is the Medicare website, www.Medicare.gov. There...
Read more →By Chanelle Bell The Sharon Randolph Foundation, which raises money to fight breast cancer, is hosting a “Sparkle for a Cause” post-preview party featuring actress Brély Evans, 8 p.m., Saturday, Aug.18 at at Geoffrey’s Inner Circle, 410 14th St. in Oakland. “Sparkle“ hits theatres on Aug. 17 and has a star-studded cast to back...
Read more →From left to right: Dr. Cornel West, Rev. Al Sharpton, Tavis Smiley, and Andrew Young. By plane, train and bus, advocates came from all over the globe to take part in the International AIDS Conference and participate in the July 22 march to “Keep the Promise” to end the HIV/AIDS epidemic, at a time...
Read more →The U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced approval this week of a drug for daily use by uninfected adults to help prevent the sexual acquisition of HIV. The drug combination, called Truvada, has been commercially available as an HIV treatment since 2004. But this is the first time any drugs have been approved for...
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By Jesse Brooks On Sunday I will be joining thousands of other advocates to call out to the world with one voice: “Keep the Promise”. The “Keep the Promise” March on Washington is expected to be one of the highlights of the 19th International AIDS Conference (IAC), which will be held in downtown Washington...
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By Jesse Brooks Prior to the opening ceremonies of the XIX International AIDS conference in Washington, D.C. in July, Wyclef Jean and Ambassador Andrew Young will join a crowd of over 10,000 at a “Keep the Promise” march and rally, to mobilize support for the continued fight against HIV. The march and rally...
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By Rachel A. Harralson Woman’s Health Columnist As an HIV test counselor and Counseling, Testing, and Linkages Coordinator working primarily with people in substance abuse treatment, I have discovered that not everyone battling addiction “looks” like it. Not every injection drug user has visible track marks. Not every married man “looks” like he has...
Read more →Federal drug regulators this week affirmed landmark study results showing that a popular HIV-fighting pill can also help healthy people avoid contracting the virus that causes AIDS in the first place. While the pill appears safe and effective for prevention, scientists stressed that it only works when taken every day. The Food and Drug...
Read more →By Thomas A. Farrington, PHEN Founder and President Billionaire Warren Buffet, who is nearly 82 years old, has announced that he was diagnosed with prostate cancer. “I discovered the cancer because my PSA level recently jumped beyond its normal elevation, and a biopsy seemed warranted,” Buffet said. Diagnosed with Stage 1 prostate cancer, he chose...
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The annual Walk to End Poverty will be held Saturday, May 19 at Lake Merritt in Oakland, hosted by the Alameda County-Oakland Community Action Partnership to raise awareness about the impact of poverty and what is being done to curb it. This free event takes place from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Of...
Read more →By Jesse Brooks Hip-Hop for HIV is offering free admission to a talent competition as a reward for taking a HIV, part of an effort to reach out to college students and other young people who are less likely to utilize healthcare services for HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases, “Hip Hop for HIV,...
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By Tony Wilkinson A community meeting was held in the library of Malcolm X Elementary School this week to mobilize support and organize fundraising to save garden and cooking programs in Berkeley schools. Attending the Monday evening meeting were parents, grandparents, teachers and neighbors from Malcolm X, Washington, Rosa Parks Elementary schools, Spiral Gardens,...
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