N.C. Black lawmakers
to host local town hall
CHRONICLE STAFF REPORT
Members of the North Carolina Legislative Black
Caucus will be in Winston-Salem on Friday, April 4 to
hold a town hall meeting to discuss poverty and eco
nomic development. The meeting will be held in the
Dillard Auditorium in the Anderson Center on the
campus of Winston-Salem
State University from 1-3
p.m.
Sen. Earline Parmon, the
first vice president of the
N.C. Legislative Black
Caucus, is expected to be on
hand with other legislators
from Forsyth County and
around the state.
The North Carolina
Legislative Black Caucus is
an unincorporated associa
tion comprised of Senators
and Representatives of
African American heritage and Native American her
itage. The caucus' primary mission is to operate as a
vehicle through which blacks. Native Americans and
other minorities in the state can exercise their political
power in a unified manner; to ensure that the views
and concerns of blacks and other communities of color
are carried out by their elected representatives; and to
work to develop the political consciousness of black
people.
Rep. Garland E. Pierce, a Democrat who repre
sents Hoke, Richmond, Robeson and Scotland coun
ties, is the chairman of the caucus.
Parmon
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Photos by Todd Luck
Dr. Avinash Shetty speaks about HIV/AIDS.
Medical Center details global
health efforts at symposium
BY TODD LUCK
THE CHRONICLE
International health
challenges and possible
solutions to them were the
focus of the Fourth
Annual Global Health
Symposium at Wake
Forest University Baptist
Medical Center.
The WFU School of
Medicine Office of Global
Health, which faculties an
exchange program for
medical professionals and
fosters alliances with
medical schools and insti
tutions around the globe,
hosted the symposium last
practicing here in North
Carolina, whether urban,
rural or otherwise, you
need to understand that
there's nothing separating
that concept of global
health within North
Carolina on a global scale
because there are no
boundaries," Global
Health Associate Dean Dr.
Bret Nicks told attendees,
who included both med
ical professionals and lay
people from the commu
nity. "What can happen in
an avian flu outbreak in
rriday and Saturday.
"For thn?ip that arp
Don Holzworth speaks about his work at VNC.
credited with drastically
lowering the country's
maternal mortality and
stillborn rates.
Tokyo can very well be in Liberian Organization of the Piedmont's James
one of our airports before Hunder and Rev. Sharon McKinney.
anyone is able to identify ____
it's been transmitted which sells the CBT
across" around the world. The
"Innovations in Global Philippines ordered
Health" was the theme. 20,000 of the tests after it
On Friday, Nicks pointed was bi' by a 'ypboon las'
out such innovations and year
the impact they are having James Hunder. a long
in poor countries. They |'me member of the
include a prosthetic leg in Liberian Organization of
India that only costs $60 ,he Piedmont, attended
Nicks said such an inno- 'be symposium and
vation may one day be expressed an interest in
useful in the United 'be CBT. as drinking
Sta|es water quality has long
Don Holzworth. the been an issue in his native
executive in resi- Liberia, which is still
.u.. rprnvprino
UtIIVC ill NIL
University of
North Carolina's
Gillings School
of Global Public
Health and the
former founder
and CEO of the
global health con
sulting firm the
Constella Group,
said a failing
? * * *? ?
from a long
civil war that
ended in
2003.
"The city
doesn't have
real good
running
water, in
Monrovia,
which is the
health system can
have far-reaching ramifi
cations for a nation.
"Global health is one
of the primary underpin
nings for political and
civil stability for econom
ic growth and sustainabil
ity as well as human
rights and development,"
said Holzworth, who sold
his company in 2007 and
now helps researchers at
UNC turn their research
into a marketable reality.
"The health problems
today, 1 believe solving
them requires as much a
business discipline as they
do a scientific discipline,"
he said.
One example he cited
was the Compartment Bag
Test (CBT). Developed by
UNC Professor Dr. Mark
Sobsey, the CBT is an
inexpensive way to test
the safety of drinking
water. Holzworth helped
Sobsey start Aquagenx,
capital." said
Hunder, "... so that idea
that Dr. Don mentioned, it
would be helpful to some
people, especially in the
villages."
Hunder said Liberia
also has understaffed hos
pitals as a result of doc
tors and other profession
als fleeing the country
during the war. He hopes
to begin a partnership
with the WFU School of
Medicine to help change
that.
Dr. Avinash Shetty, a
pediatric infectious dis
ease specialist at Brenner
Children's Hospital and
WFU School of Medicine
professor, talked about
the optimism in the med
ical community about the
future of HIV/AIDS.
"Due to tremendous
scientific discoveries and
advancements over the
past 30 years, we have
people actually seeing
Nicks
some light at the end of
the tunnel," said Shetty.
While there is still no
cure, advances in medica
tions that are now avail
able can not only treat the
disease but vastly
decrease the possibility of
transmission between
partners and mother and
child. There are still
places where new infec
tions are on the rise, but
overall there's been a 22
percent decrease in new
infections between 2001
and 2011.
"This is what has led
people to really talk about
an AIDS free generation,"
said Shetty, who regularly
visits Africa to tout HIV
prevention, especially to
African women.
Several Wake Forest
doctors/professors talked
about their experiences
abroad, including Dr.
Adele Evans, who
addressed the challenges
she faced on a trip to a
"low resource" hospital in
the Dominican Republic.
Dr. Sean Ervin gave a
presentation on the over
diagnosis of malaria at a
Ghanian hospital he visit
ed. Everyone who had a
fever was prescribed
antibiotics to treat it, a
waste of limited resources
and a means of creating
drug resistant viruses.
Ervin said.
Saturday's presenters
included Dr. Medge
Owen, a professor of
anesthesiology at the
Medical Center and
founder of the Kybele
Inc., a nonprofit that
works in 11 countries to
make childbirth safer. She
addressed Kybele's work
in Ghana, where the
organization has helped to
establish a number of
obstetric centers and is
Chronicle