Efforts Seek To Raise HIV/AIDS, Health Awareness, Other Issues Among Minorities

• Akron, Ohio: Akron's Minority Health Roundtable on Monday discussed its purpose and role in the community, the Akron Beacon Journal reports. Since its inception in 2005, the group's focus has been mostly to organize health fairs. Now, it is seeking to "make itself a go-to clearinghouse for minority health information" and form a speaker's bureau to raise awareness about minority health issues, the Beacon Journal reports (Wheeler, Akron Beacon Journal, 7/10).
  
  
• Albuquerque, N.M.: The University of New Mexico's Cancer Center this summer began its Hispanic and American Indian summer internship program, which encourages minorities to obtain degrees in biomedical sciences, the AP/Las Cruces Sun-News reports. The Asthma and Leukemia Research Internship Program accepted 11 out of 45 applicants, who until Aug. 10 will perform "complicated, cutting-edge experiments" in the university labs and receive mentoring from principal investigators, according to the AP/Sun-News. The program is in its fourth year of funding from a five-year, $502,755 national grant (AP/Las Cruces Sun-News, 7/11).
  
  
• Arizona: Arizona health officials have begun a $100,000 syphilis education campaign that will mainly target Hispanic pregnant women and their physicians, the Capitol Media/Arizona Daily Star reports. In Arizona, 80% of the syphilis cases that occur during fetal development are among Hispanics. The campaign was ordered by Gov. Janet Napolitano (D) and funded with money from the state's Health Crisis Fund, which receives up to $1 million annually from tobacco taxes. Funding for the program was not approved by the Legislature and will not include any state money (Fischer, Capitol Media/Arizona Daily Star 7/12).
  
  
• Cherryland, Calif.: The National Council of La Raza and the Comcast Foundation have given the Tiburcio Vasquez Health Center a $75,000 grant, the Oakland Tribune reports. The grant will be used to develop a "promotoras de salud" program, which will train individuals how to teach fellow community members about health prevention and treatment of illnesses that commonly affect Hispanics. The grant also will help fund the center's Spanish-language, chronic disease programs (Cohen, Oakland Tribune, 7/7).
  
  
• Columbia, S.C.: The University of South Carolina has received a $2.7 million grant from NIH for a program that aims to improve the general health of residents in three largely low-income, black communities, the Orangeburg Times and Democrat reports. The health improvement program is a part of the South Carolina Nutrition Research Consortium and will establish steering communities of 130 adults in each community. The committees will serve as a liaison among a research team, local law enforcement, city and county officials, and local churches and schools. The three communities where the program will start have yet to be named. One community will have an educational program that seeks to improve access to care by providing information on health issues that are prominent in the black community, such as hypertension, diabetes, obesity and stroke (Orangeburg Times and Democrat, 7/10).
  
  
• Detroit: Filmmaker Michael Moore on Monday at the annual NAACP convention urged delegates to demand 2008 presidential candidates push for universal health care, the Detroit Free Press reports. Moore said to the delegates, "Can't we find some common ground here? Illness affects everyone. Let's at least on this issue stop the bickering and come together for the good of all Americans." A screening of "SICKO" -- Moore's latest movie, which focuses on the U.S. health care system -- also was presented during the convention (Menard, Detroit Free Press, 7/10).
  
  
• Orlando, Fla.: The Rev. Kelvin Bodley, in conjunction with the W.E. Freeman Outreach Center of Central Florida, has organized a two-day Faith and HIV Conference, to promote HIV/AIDS awareness in the black community, the Orlando Sentinel reports. The goal of the effort is to encourage the nation's black religious leaders to inform their congregations about HIV/AIDS prevention and education. The conference will begin July 16, and 500 participants have registered so far (Owens, Orlando Sentinel, 7/7).