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Health & Wellness Healthbeat I Meharry celebrates Match Day success Fourth-year medcal students at Meharry Medical | College in Nashville. Tenn. and around the countiy 1 leaned where they will begin their careers during the] tecenT nationwide event known as Match Day. On that | diy, medcal students learn at which medcal facilities! they will conduct their residencies. Fifty-three percent of Mehany's fourth-year stu-j dents matched in the primary care field of Internal ! Medcine. Pedatrics and Family Med cine. The rate! increases to 56 percent wheal Obstetrics and Gynecology if] included in the primary care cat-J "We are pleased that S3 paP*| cent of our students are pursu ing primary care fields and that a significant number of our stu dents will continue to serve! right here in Tennessee," said Dr. Charles P. Mouton, dean of the School of Meddne and senior VP for Health Affairs. Dr. Mouton twelve percent of Mehany students matched to res idency programs in Tennessee, including Vandobilt Medical Center, University of Tennessee Health Science Center and Nashville General Hospital at Mehany Medcal College, where seven students will enter training programs. Mehany students successfully "matched' in dozens of residency training programs from coast to coast, including such prestigious academic health centers such as Mayo Clinic, Brigham & Women's Hospital, Cleveland Clinic, Baylor College of Medicine and Case Weston. Students such as Reuben Battley, 2012 class presi dent, who successfully matched into pedatrics at Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center in Baton Rouge, La., are encouraged to pursue primary care dur ing their training at Meharry. Many Mehany graduates enter the primary care field because they are devoted to fulfilling Meharry's mission of caring for undeserved and vulnerable populations. The overall match rate at Mehany - which has long prodiced most of the nation's black physicians, was 88 percent for the 2012 class of graduating seniors. Submitted P**> Ashley Donahue and Steve Garner TVainers win statewide awards Steve Gamer, athletic training supervisor for Forsyth Medical Center, and Ashley Donahue, athlet ic training coordinator for Wake Forest Baptist Medcal Center, have been selected as co-recipients of the inaugural Clinical & Emerging Practice Athletic Trainer of the Year Award from the N.C. Athletic Trainers'Association (NCATA). They received their awards at the NCATA's 35th Annual Clinical Symposium, held March 16-18 in Wrightsville Beach. Gamer and Donahue were recognized for their work with the county's certified athletic trainer pro gram. a joint effort by Forsyth Medical Center and Wake Forest Baptist that launched last year. Certified athletic trainers from the two medical centers work with student athletes at all 12 high schools in Forsyth County in an effort to reduce injuries and improve treatment for those student athletes who are injured. J anna Fonseca. honors and awards chair for the NCATA, says the collaborative nature of the program impressed the honors and awarcfc committee. "It's unusual for us to grant an award to two recip ients, but what we really liked about this situation is that you have the region's major medcal centers working closely together to provide the highest level of care to student athletes in our community," Fonseca says. Local doc helps open new operating room in Ghana Dr. Medge Owen recently participated in the for-j mal opening of a matemitv-dedcated operating room I at Ridge Regional Hospital in Ridge, Ghana. Owen is director of the Maternal Infant Health! Program, which is part of the Office of Global Health! at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center. She is also . president of Kybele, Inc., a non-profit 501 (c)3 humanitari an oiganization dedicated to improving childbirth safety worldwide through educational partnerships. The new facility is the result of a collaborative effort among Kybele, the Ghana Ministry of Health, U.S. Agency for International Development and Ghana Dr. Owtn Internal i anal Women's Club. The well-equipped oper-| ating room will allow the hospital to better serve the I women of the greater Accra region. IKttl Owen also is a professor of obstetrical anestheaj-l ology at Wake Forest Baptist and is certified by the! American Board of Anesthesiology. Area stores pulling "pink slime" beef CHRONICLE STAFF REPORT Several local grocery chains have announced that they will stop selling controversial "pink slime" beef. Winston-Salem-based Lowes Foods announced last week that it will discontinue the use of use of hi n i.. * A. i icon unciy icxiurcu beef' in its fresh ground beef products due to growing cus tomer concerns. " Currently over 90% of all our fresh ground beef does not contain lean finely textured beef," accord ing to a Lowes Foods , statement. "We are listening to our cus tomers and are addressing their con cerns with regard to the recent press." "Lean, finely tex tured beef" (or LFTB) has been dubbed pink slime beet in recent press reports. The so-called pink slime is produced dur ing a slaughterhouse process used to extract every possible trace of usable meat from an animal. This process is used after the prime cuts have already been carved off. It is believed that about 70 percent of the beef sold in this country con tains LFTB. Although the United States Department of Agriculture has repeatedly stated that lean, finely textured beef is safe to eat, the images of the "pink slime" process that have been spread through media reports and social media have turned many Americans off. McDonald's, the nation largest fast food chain, announced in January that it would stop using the beet. In recent .weeks, Wal-Mart, the nation's largest retailer, announced it would give cus tomers a LFTB alternative. "While the US DA and experts agree that it is safe and nutritious, Wal Mart and Sam's Club will begin offering fresh ground beef that does not contain LFTB," Deisha Galberth Bamett, a Wal-Mart spokesperson, said in a statement. -C North Carolina-based Food Lion has announced that it will no longer sell fresh meat with LFTB. According to press reports. Whole Foods, Fresh Market, Costco and Harris Teeter say they have never carried used LFTB in the fresh beef that they sel I. - "The Next Bed-Nets" PRNewsFoto/Footwork: The International Podoconiosis Initiative Footwork is the name of a new project of the International Podoconiosis Initiative that brings together private and public partners together to provide shoes for those most at risk for podoconiosis, or podo. The non-infectious elephantiasis is found in highland tropical areas where shoes are frequently not worn and barefoot farmers cul tivate in volcanic clay soil, allowing irritant mineral particles to cause damage to the lymphatic system in the legs. The photo here are of female farmers in western Ethiopia. Footwork will help enable shoes to be thought of as "the next bed-nets." State continues search for eugenics victims CHRONICLE STAFF REPORT According to records, 7,600 documented people were sterilized by the state, but the N.C. Justice for Sterilization Victims Foundation is having a hard time finding them. A _ _r i A i. .L _ f\s 01 lasi wcck, ine Foundation had only verified 111 people in 48 counties as sterilization victims. Lenoir County has the highest number of verified victims with 18. Mecklenburg, which had the highest num ber of procedures of any North Carolina county, fol lows with 10 verifications, then Wake with nine. However, three of the coun Fuller Cooper ties ranked in the Top 10 for number ot procedures have no matches to date. There have been no match es thus far in Forsyth County. The N.C. Eugenics Board implemented a program of involuntary steril ization that took place in all 100 counties between 1929 and 1974. In January, Gov. Bev Perdue's Eugenics Compensation Task Force recommended a tax free lump sum payment of $50,000 to living victims and those who were alive when initially verified by the Foundation. The Task Force also recommend ed providing mental health services to victims, cre ation and expansion of permanent and traveling eugenics exhibits, and continuation of the Sterilization Victims Foundation. The Foundation continues to receive a steady flow of incoming verification requests and has received more than 1,300 phone inquiries since January, said Foundation Executive Director Charmaine Fuller Cooper. As public support for North Carolina's sterilization victims continues to increase, the number of verified victims is expected to rise. "North Carolina operated the most aggressive eugenics program in the nation, sterilizing the majority of its program victims after World War II and the Holocaust. Anyone could have been subject ed to a sterilization order and the chances for steril ization were great for those in poverty," Fuller Cooper said. "Victims have courageously stepped forward to tell their stories and their courage has inspired more people to contact the Foundation." If you believe you are or know someone who may have been affected by the program, call the toll-free hotline 877-550-6013 or visit www.sterilizationvictims.nc.gov. Record of amount of meds turned in CHRONICLE STAFF REPORT The message that expired/unwanted medications and public waterways don't mix is apparently getting through to more and more local folks. Forsyth County's most recent Operation Medicine Drop Take-Back on March 20 at the Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum netted more than 67,645 doses of unwant ed/expired medications. That haul is a 16 percent increase over last year's event. The medicine turned in will be safely disposed of so that they will not end up in public waters. It will also help prevent acciden tal poisonings and substance abuse in adults and children, according to organizers, which included Safe Kids North Carolina, the State Bureau of Investigation, the Riverkeepers of North Carolina, Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of North Carolina and state, county and local law enforcement agencies. Flushing medications down the toilet or throwing them away creates safety and health hazards, organizers says. Preventing the collected medicine form ending up in North Carolina's water supply is particularly important because waterways and the wildlife depending on the water ways are vulnerable. According to a United States Geological Survey (USGS) study, the Yadcin Pee Dee watershed has shown to have the largest occur rence of intersex fish with (91 percent) of fish tested shown to have intersex characteristics. Submitted Photo Volunteer Ken L u p t o n collects old med ications at the recent L J V M c o 11 e c ? tion. Allergies and You 7 he, Ptoph'b Clihbc,: A North (juotina Minority Health Education Coltabom+m The Maya Angdou C enter for Health Equity www.wfubmc.edu/moeha ?I Wake forest - UNivntin St.HOOl o/MEUIUNE Many of us look forward to the start of the Spring sea son and the warmer weather it brings, but unfortunately, with that weather comes a very unwelcome condition: allergies. It is estimated by the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of American that 50 million people, nearly 1 out of every 5 persons, suffer from allergies in the U.S. Allergy is the 5th leading chronic disease in the U.S. among all ages, and the 3rd most common chronic disease among children under 18 years old. What can you do to pre vent and treat the most com mon allergies? Read on to learn more. What are allergies? According to the National Institutes of Health, an allergy is a reaction of your immune system to something that does not bother most other people. People who have allergies often are sensitive to more than one thing. Those things that cause an allergy are called allergens. It is important to know the difference between allergies and a cold. Cold symptoms will gradually lessen in severity and usually go away within 7-14 days. Allergy symptoms often show up in certain seasons and do not go away for several weeks, sometimes months. Common symptoms of aller gies are: stuffy nose, watery eyes, often irritated or red, swelling in the nose and/or throat, sneezing, sensation of pressure in the nose and the head, stuffy ears anchor itching anchor rashes on the skin. What are the most com mon allergens? Tree pollen, flower pollen, grass and weeds are the most common envi ronmental allergens. These alletgens can be avoided by taking a bath or shower upon entering your house and espe cially before lying down on a couch or bed to remove pollen and other allergens from your hair and skin, amd also by keeping your windows and doors closed (if possible) and using air conditioning in your house and car. Mold is common in the places where water accumu lates. like shower curtains, window panes, base ments/cellars as in the cur tains of bath, the marks of the windows and the humid cel lars. It can be avoided by by removing plants and cleaning shower curtains, windows where moisture collects (like bathrooms and kitchens), walls, any areas with rotten wood and trash cans. Animal Dander is from the skin and hair from animals such as cats and dogs are also common allergens, and are most common when petting an animal or in a house where these animals live. It can be avoided by removing the ani mal(s) from the home or at least keeping them outside. If you do keep the animal(s) in your home, wash clothes and bedding frequently, bathe the animal often, and use and air cleaner to cfiminish the animal dander. Dust allergies are due to the things that can be present in the dust, like carcasses from bugs anchor dust mites. In order to reduce the amount of dust in your home, wash ing curtains, pillows, blan kets and dusting furniture reg ularly are essential. You \ See Allergies on A9
Winston-Salem Chronicle (Winston-Salem, N.C.)
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