Journal Examines Health After Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, Wilma; Report Looks at HIV/AIDS Among Blacks

• Public Health Implications of Hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Wilma, Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved: The May 2007 issue of JHCPU examines the effects hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Wilma had on public health, and how the ensuing public health crisis exacerbated health care disparities nationwide. It includes several first-hand accounts of the natural disasters, many from scholars of Louisiana and Gulf Coast institutions, and analyses of the public health infrastructure after the hurricanes (JHCPU release, 5/1).
  
  An interview with Wayne Riley -- president of Meharry Medical College, who wrote an opening commentary for the issue -- is available online at kaisernetwork.org.
  
  
• "Improving Outcomes: Blueprint for a National AIDS Plan for the United States," Open Society Institute: The report finds that the U.S. has not made sufficient progress against HIV/AIDS, especially among blacks. It makes several recommendations for the fight against the disease, including the need to focus prevention and treatment efforts among blacks. The report also says that there is a need to implement new approaches, focus federal funding on concrete results and increase the use of evidence-based, cost-effective strategies that have been shown to be successful (OSI release, 5/1).