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Health & Wellness Healthbeat VA to open new N.C. clinics U.S. Senator Richard Burr is applauding the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) for expanding the access to care for North Carolina veterans with the announcement of two new outpatient clinics in North Carolina. One clinic will be established in Goldsboro and the other in the Edenton-Elizabeth City area. Last week, the VA announced a total of 31 new clinics would be opened nationwide. "Giving our veterans expanded access to world class health care is one of our most important respon sibilities," Burr said. - The new outpatient clinics in Goldsboro and Edenton-Elizabeth City will be operational by 2010. VA currently has four hospitals, 10 community-based outpatient clinics and five rehabilitation counseling centers in North Carolina. In addition to the clinics opening in 2010, two others will open next year in Lumberton and Rutherfordton. The VA currently operates 153 hospitals and 750 community-based clinics nationwide. Kemper earns leadership honor Dr. Kathi J. Kemper, a pioneer in wellness pro motion and integrative health care for children, received the inaugural IPC Leadership Award from the Integrative Pediatrics Council, a group of con cerned health care practitioners and child health advo cates. Kemper received the award in November at "Pangea 2008: A Conference for the Future of Children's Health" in New York. Kemper is the Caryl J. Guth Chair for Holistic and Integrative Medicine and professor of pediatrics, pub lie health sciences, and family and community medicine at Wake Forest University School of Medicine. "The decision to honor Dr. Kemper with the first IPC Leadership Award was unani mous. She is without a doubt one of the country's finest pediatricians and has long led the way toward an integrative model of health for children," said Lawrence D. Rosen, Dr. Kemper MX)., cnair ot Uie integrative Pediatrics council ana founder of the Whole Child Center in northern New Jersey. An influential advocate, clinician and researcher in the field of integrative pediatrics, which combines the best of conventional and complementary approaches to the health care of children, Kemper founded and chairs the American Academy of Pediatrics Section on Complementary and Integrative Medicine. She is also past president of the Ambulatory Pediatrics Association. Prior to her appointment at Wake Forest, she founded the Center for Holistic Pediatric Education and Research at Boston's Children's Hospital/Harvard Medical School. Obama has no smoking pledge for the White House WASHINGTON (AP) - Barack Obama says you won't catch him lighting up a cigarette in the smoke free White House. "There are times where I've fallen off the wagon," the president-elect said when asked in a broadcast interview whether he has kiVked the habit, . "I've done a terrific job, under the circumstances, of making myself much healthier," he said. "And I think that you will not see any violations of these rules in the White House," he said on Sunday's "Meet the Press" on NBC. Obama told the magazine Men's Health in an interview for its November issue that he wished he had more time for staying fit and that he still occa sionally smoked a cigarette. Obama said in that interview that he had bummed a cigarette a couple of times during the campaign. "But I figure, seeing as I'm running for president. I need to cut myself a little slack," he said. Family and community medicine unit adds four Dr. Lisa Cassidy-Vu, Dr. Oana Panea, Dr. Carmen Strickland and Dr. Erik Lie-Nielsen have joined the Department of Family and Community Medicine at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center as assistant professors. Cassidy-Vu 's areas of interest and specialty are in prenatal care and obstetrics. She received her medical degree from University of Cincinnati College of Medicine and completed a residency and fellowship in family medicine at Moses Cone Hospital. She came to Wake Forest Baptist from University of Cincinnati Family Physicians/Wyoming Family Practice. Panea 's areas of interest are family medicine and sports medicine. She received her medical degree from Medical School Carol Davila in Bucharest, Romania, and completed a residency and a fellowship in sports medicine at the University Health System of Eastern Carolina in Greenville. ?. Strickland's areas of interest include family medi cine. centering on pregnancy and exercise behaviors and barriers. She received her medical degree from the University of Massachusetts Medical School and completed a residency and fellowship in family med icine at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She came to Wake Forest Baptist from the Mayo Clinic. Scottsdale. Ariz. Lie-Nielsen's interest focuses on family medicine and geriatrics. He received his medical degree from Eiast Carolina University Brody School of Medicine in Greenville. He completed a residency and fellow ship in geriatric medicine at Wake Forest Baptist. Advice to Live By In wake of deadly fires, city offers safety tips SPECIAL TO THh CHRONICLE Winston-Salem Fire Chief Antony Farmer and Fire Marshall Robert Owens are reminding residents to follow fire-prevention guidelines fol lowing a spate of fire fatalities. "Within the last two weeks, three people have been killed and one seriously injured in house fires," Owens said. "Most of these fires have been related to heating equipment," he said, noting that economic conditions are causing many families to use alternative means to keep warm. "We can reduce the number of home heating fires in our community by taking some simple precautions and using heating equipment properly," Owens said. He recommends these simple home heating safe ty tips that will keep residents warm and safe this winter. ?Install smoke alarms in every bedroom, outside each sleeping area and on every level of the home. Interconnect all smoke alarms throughout the home so that when one sounds, they all sound. Test smoke alarms at 1 * *!_ I J icum uiicc <1 luuiim anu uuii i use the batteries in your smoke alarms for toys or other items. ? Install and maintain a car bon monoxide alarm in a cen tral location outside each sleep ing area. ?Never use an oven to heat your home. ?Install a residential fire sprinkler system in your home. It's like having a firefighter in every room of your home ready to extinguish a fire at a moments notice. ?Have your chimney inspected each year and cleaned if necessary, ?Remove combustible mate rinlo fr/\rM f Ua at-an nr/\iin/4 uaia uuiii nit aita aiwuuu yuui fireplace. ? Use a sturdy fireplace screen. ?Allow ashes to cool before disposing. Dispose of ashes in a metal container away from your home. ?Space heaters need space. Keep all things that can burn, such as paper, bedding or furni ture, at least 3 feet away from heating equipment. ?Turn portable heaters off | when you go to bed or leave the I room. ( ?Plug portable heater power 1 cords only into outlets with suf- j ficient capacity and never into 1 ?? a i an CAiciniuu iuiu. i ? 'Inspect for cracked or bro- | ken plugs or loose connections. - Replace before using. ; I For more information about 1 fire safety, go to www.nfpa.org. - Doctors group give N.C. a C- ! Report calls state's medical liability laws a turn-off for new physicians CHRONICLE STAFF REPORT North Carolina lacks adequate access to emer gency care and has medical liability laws fhat scare away new doctors. Those were just two of the find ings released last week by the American College of Emergency Physicians on its "National Report Card on the State of Emergency Medicine." Though the state received high marks for its quality and patient safety envi ronment, N.C. overall grade was a C-, the same score received by the nation as a whole. "We have one of the worst medical liability envi ronments in the nation," said Dr. Michael B. Hocker, president of the North Carolina College of Emergency Physicians. "If we don't enact liability reforms, we can't expect to recruit the physicians we need. The state lacks a medical liability cap on non economic damages, as well as additional liability protections for EMTALA-mandated emergency care. We also lack requirements for case certifica tion by an expert witness and for the witness to be licensed to practice in the state. In plain English, that means North Carolina has unwittingly created a hos tile environment for emergency physicians. We will not attract or retain enough physicians under our present circumstances." The Report Card, a comprehensive analysis of the support that the 50 states and the District of Columbia provide for emergency patients, also found fault with the state's high infant mortality rate, "relatively high" percentage of adult obesity (26.6 percent) and its smoking rate (22.1 percent). On the other hand, in Public Health and Injury Prevention, North Carolina scored well in traffic safety and earned an "A" in the Quality & Patient Safety category. "Clearly there are weaknesses in the system, as ' well as strengths," said Dr. Hocker. "But we still ' have a long way to go to improve the state of emer- ' gency medicine in North Carolina. I urge our poli- 1 cy-makers to approve the necessary funding to ' improve the emergency health care system in our ' state." Locals honored for AIDS work j CHRONICLE STAFF REPORT The N.C. Department of Health and Human Services - Division of Public Health honored local people during a World AIDS Day Banquet on Dec. 4 in Durham. The Union Baptist Church AIDS Ministry and Dr. Deborea Winfrey, a Winston-Salem psy chologist, were among those feted for their efforts to help people liv ing with HIV/AIDS. The Union Baptist AIDS Ministry was presented with an Organizational Service Award. The church is a pioneer, starting one of the earliest AIDS ministries in the city. Founded by Deacon Sammie Gray and his wife. Inez Gray, at a time when the stigma of HIV/AIDS was still too severe to mention, the Ministry reaches out weekly to serve clients of Winston-Salem-based AIDS Care Service (ACS) through the deliv ery of meals to those who are homebound, visits to ACS clients and by generating HIV awareness and education. Winfrey won an Individual Service Award for the exemplary mental health services that she provides to the AIDS Care Services Women's Support Group. Dr. Winfrey has been cred ited by the women of the group with helping them improve their self-esteem and their abilities to build healthyemotional relation ships. The women also report an increased ability to deal with depression and other stressors that ACS Photo Union 's Robert Noble and Sammie Gray with Dr. Winfrey. are part of living with HIV. AIDS Care Service - which has a mission to to empower and serve those living with HIV/ AIDS and to educate the commu nity - nominated both Winfrey and the Ministry for the awards. "We are thrilled to see our sup porters recognized in such a pub lic way for their service. There are over 2.000 people now living in our region with HIV or AIDS who need uiirect care or supportive services to live healthier lives," said ACS Community Relations Director Amy Lindsey. "We are so grateful to have the help of the faith-based community, and the mental health community, in < meeting oiif clients' needs. We are especially thankful to Union Baptist and Dr. Winfrey for their dedication." HIV/AIDS 101 Clinic The (Ilm* flncnou Abeam! on (HinowTv tat Wake Forest University Baptist Mroicu CfNTfR Each year, about 40,000 people in the United States will become infected with HIV, and jver half of the new cases will je among minorities. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), "almost 50 percent of new HIV cases are African American. Moreover, ibout 41 percent of men and 64 percent of women living with HIV/AIDS are African American. African Americans aften don't live as long as members of other racial/ethnic groups with HIV/AIDS, due in part to barriers like poverty, higher rates of sexually trans mitted infections (STIs), and stigma (negative attitudes, beliefs, and actions directed at people with HIV/ AIDS or at people who are at risk for the disease). What's even more frightening is that about 1 in 5 people (21 percent) living with HIV do not know that they have the infection, which means they could unknowingly spread it to others. This article, the first in a three-part series, will discuss HIV/AIDS, its risk factors, and ways you can pro tect yourself and your commu nity. ? What are HIV and AIDS? Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is the virus that :auses the life-threatening dis :ase known as AIDS, or icquired immunodeficiency syndrome. First identified in he early 1980s, the infection :ontinues to spread worldwide ind disproportionately affects ninorities in the United States. -HV attacks your immune sys em. the system that helps our xxiies fight illness, by destroy ng a certain type of white )lood cell (T cells), which we leed to fight disease. AIDS is he last stage of HIV infection; laving AIDS means this virus las weakened the immune sys em to the point at which the )ody has a very difficult time "lghting infection. How can you get HIV? Many people do not know hat HIV is a very delicate firus, so it does not stay alive or very long outside a person's xxiy. HIV is primarily found in he blood, semen, or vaginal luid of an infected person, 'regnant mothers can transmit -IIV to their unborn child dur ng childbirth or through breast eeding. Because of excellent screening techniques now uti lized, it is rare for HIV to be :ontracted from blood transfu sions. The three most commons means of transmission are: ? Having sex (anal, vaginal, or oral) with someone infected with HIV ? Sharing needles and syringes with someone infected with HIV ?Exposure to HIV before or during birth or through breast feeding. It is also important to understand how it is NOT transmitted. HIV is not trans mitted through shaking hands, hugging, or a casual kiss. You cannot become infected from a toilet seat, drinking fountain, doorknob, dishes, drinking glasses, food .'or pets. You also See Noose on A 12
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