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Section: Disparities

Woman Dies of Disease from Raw Oysters

A 55-year-old Texas woman is dead after contracting a flesh-eating disease from raw oysters she ate on a trip to Louisiana. KLFY reported that Jeanette LeBlanc fell ill after consuming the oysters on a crabbing trip with family and friends. Both LeBlanc and her friend, Karen Bowers, consumed nearly two dozen oysters, but only LeBlanc […]

January 11, 2018

What Happens When a Grocery Opens in a Food Desert?

Pittsburgh’s Hill District hasn’t had a full-service grocery store in 30 years. Nestled in the heart of the city, the Hill was once a vital center of jazz, black culture, and civic life, earning it the nickname “Little Harlem.” The neighborhood had its own newspaper and radio station. Thoroughfares were lined with black-owned clubs, restaurants, […]

January 11, 2018

3 Tribes Sue Opioid Industry for Damages

Three Native American tribes from the Dakotas filed a federal lawsuit on Monday against major opioid manufacturers and distributors, seeking monetary damages for an epidemic that has had devastating impacts for tribal members. The Rosebud Sioux Tribe, Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe and the Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate filed suit in U.S. District Court in South Dakota […]

January 11, 2018

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Race Could Matter in Outcomes for Preemies

(Reuters Health) – Among the tiniest preemies, black and Hispanic infants are more likely than white babies to be born at hospitals with worse death and complication rates, a study in New York City suggests. In the study of 7,177 very preterm infants born at 39 hospitals citywide, 28 percent of the babies died or […]

January 8, 2018

Initiative on Mental, Physical Health Goes Global

A successful New Zealand initiative which encourages those working with the mentally ill to also consider their patient’s physical well-being has been exported overseas. Equally Well is a group of people and organisations with a common goal of reducing physical health disparities between people who experience mental health and addiction problems, and people who don’t. […]

January 8, 2018

Chinatown Hospital in L.A. Closes After 157 Years

LOS ANGELES —The oldest hospital in Los Angeles has shut down and laid off all its employees after more than 150 years, sending shockwaves through the Chinatown neighborhood that it served in recent decades. Pacific Alliance Medical Center – better known as the French Hospital — quietly closed its doors Nov. 30, the Los Angeles […]

December 21, 2017

Is Your State the Healthiest?

Massachusetts is the healthiest state in which to live this year, according to a new report from the United Health Foundation. The report ranks states on 35 factors that impact health, from vaccination levels and infant mortality rates to environmental pollution and poverty levels. The analysis also pinpoints public health challenges nationwide. Read More

December 18, 2017

Compound Stops Progressive Kidney Disease

Progressive kidney diseases, whether caused by obesity, hypertension, diabetes, or rare genetic mutations, often have the same outcome: The cells responsible for filtering the blood are destroyed. Reporting in Science, a team led by researchers from the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and Harvard Medical School describes a new approach […]

December 13, 2017

PTSD Veterans Struggle to Get Service Dogs

For 10 years, Adam LeGrand was a medic in the Air Force. Then he was injured in rollover accidents and by a pallet of cinderblocks falling on him in Qatar. He developed post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury (TBI) and became suicidal. “The VA [Veterans Administration] put me on a dangerous cocktail of drugs,” […]

December 13, 2017

Why Are Pregnant Black Women Dying?

On a melancholy Saturday this past February, Shalon Irving’s “village” — the friends and family she had assembled to support her as a single mother — gathered at a funeral home in a prosperous black neighborhood in southwest Atlanta to say goodbye and send her home. The afternoon light was gray but bright, flooding through […]

December 13, 2017

Past Injustices Cause Minorities to Avoid Clinical Trials

Clinical research’s sordid past has “left a stain” on the medical community as it tries to gain trust among minority populations and increase clinical trial participation, which remains staggeringly low, says Northwell Health senior VP. Read More

December 11, 2017

Forecast: 6 Million People Have Alzheimer’s; Number Will Double

Using new methodology, scientists calculate that approximately 6 million American adults have Alzheimer’s disease or mild cognitive impairment, which can sometimes be a precursor to the disease. The estimate, funded by the National Institutes of Health, also forecasts that these numbers will more than double to 15 million by 2060, as the population ages. The […]

December 11, 2017

Many Thousand Native Children to Lose Healthcare

Congress has yet to reenact the Children’s Health Insurance Program and states will soon run out of funds to prop up the program. That will mean that thousands of American Indian and Alaska Native children will lose their health insurance. The result is the Indian Health Service will have to stretch its already thin dollars […]

December 6, 2017

Medtronic Brings Telehealth to Veterans

How can the sprawling US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) effectively treat its millions of enrolled patients? Telemedicine appears to be part of the answer. Medtronic, the healthcare device company headquartered in Ireland, announced today plans to launch “new telehealth solutions” to meet the demands of a new remote medicine contract with the government agency. […]

December 6, 2017

Allergens in Many Homes, but Research Shows Disparities

Allergens are widespread, but highly variable in U.S. homes, according to the nation’s largest indoor allergen study to date. Researchers from the National Institutes of Health report that over 90 percent of homes had three or more detectable allergens, and 73 percent of homes had at least one allergen at elevated levels. The findings (link […]

December 4, 2017

Documentary Probes Native American Connection to Tobacco

Tobacco use has been dropping in Minnesota for years, but there is one community where nicotine addiction remains stronger than ever. “In the Upper Midwest, the smoking rate among mainstream Minnesotans is about 14 percent,” said Adam Kintopf, senior communications manager for the anti-smoking nonprofit ClearWay Minnesota. “Among American Indians, however, the smoking rate is […]

November 27, 2017

Rural Hospitals Struggle to Survive, Another Closes

Rural hospitals across the U.S. are struggling to survive. Since 2010, 80 rural hospitals have closed and 673 are at risk of closing — 210 of which are at “extreme risk,” according to iVantage Health Analytics. Under the Affordable Care Act, Disproportionate Share Hospital payments to rural facilities were sharply reduced. Further cuts in CMS […]

November 27, 2017

Opioid Crisis Hits Native Americans Hard

The Native American population living on reservations has the highest overdose death rate among all minorities. The Washington Post is reporting that among the demographic groups that have endured the most severe impact by the opioid crisis, Native Americans have suffered some of the highest death rates, yet have rarely been included in the national […]

November 20, 2017

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