CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- As the coronavirus continues to affect North Carolina's Latino communities, outreach workers are providing public health information, in Spanish and culturally relevant to this growing population.
Hector Salgado, community impact director for the American Heart Association in Charlotte, was spearheading an effort to raise awareness about heart health and blood-pressure monitoring among Latinos when the pandemic hit. With help from the Mecklenburg County Public Health Department and Blue Cross/Blue Shield, he said, the program pivoted to COVID-19 prevention. As the crisis worsened, Salgado said, he began to notice what he described as rampant misinformation in the Latino community.
"And those resources are not reflected," he said. "I went to the farmer's market and I saw signs, I saw social distancing. And then, I go to the flea market, where there's a lot more Latinos, and I don't see any signs, I didn't see any social distancing."
This month, he said, ads in print, on radio and social media will emphasize the importance of wearing masks and include Mecklenburg County's COVID hotline number. Anyone with questions or concerns about the coronavirus can call 980-314-9400.
Salgado said the six-week heart-health pilot program has transitioned to virtual classes and now is training more than 100 community members on how to monitor blood pressure. He noted that around 47% of Hispanic men and 40% of women have hypertension. Research shows that puts a person at higher risk for severe COVID-19 illness.
"Particularly with a lot of the churches, they said, 'People would come out here and give us a lecture on blood pressure, but nobody gave us the machines to actually do it.' So, we created this curriculum with this mentality that the community has most of the resources that they need," he said. "We're going to give them the things that are missing."
In the past decade, Salgado said, North Carolina's Latino population has nearly tripled -- and yet, these neighborhoods often are neglected in terms of public-health outreach.
"You know, as a Latino, I think that we need to start demanding more," he said. "We need to start asking why, if we're accounting for 50% of the cases, where is the accountability? Where are the resources going to make sure these numbers are coming down?"
He said he hopes the "Promotores de Salud" initiative results in more testing, increased mask-wearing and greater social distancing among Latino residents.
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Town hall meetings start tonight across California, pushing back against congressional Republicans' proposal to cut hundreds of billions of dollars from healthcare programs for low-income families.
Organizers from the Fight for our Health coalition are sponsoring town halls targeting U.S. Rep. David Valadao, R-Hanford, U.S. Rep. Young Kim, R-Anaheim Hills, and U.S. Rep. Ken Calvert, R-Corona.
Rachel Linn Gish, director of communications for Health Access California, explained all three lawmakers have turned down an invitation to face constituents at the town hall meetings.
"It's very hard for people to make ends meet right now," said Gish. "Do these Congress members really want to be the ones to vote to raise health care costs on families in their district, on top of everything else? Because that's exactly what will happen."
Republicans on the House Budget Committee have been tasked with finding $2 trillion in cuts to federal spending, in order to extend the 2017 Trump tax cuts, which critics say have primarily benefited wealthy people and big business.
It's estimated some $880 billion in cuts would likely come from Medicaid, known as Medi-Cal in California.
Gish said that would lead to a loss in coverage for millions, plus layoffs, longer wait times, and possible closures of community clinics and hospitals that rely on Medicaid funding.
Gish warned that if the cuts go through, California would be forced to slash its budget as well, with cuts and layoffs across the board.
"One-fifth of our state budget is federal funding through Medi-Cal," said Gish. "Medi-Cal alone is 60% federally funded. There is no way that California would be able to make up any loss of the magnitude like they're talking about in Congress, in our state budget."
The Fight for our Health coalition includes about 50 groups that advocate for a wide range of issues for just about every demographic group in the state.
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New legislation backed by the American Heart Association would require all Oregon schools to have cardiac emergency response plans in place.
Research shows that one in 300 youth has an undetected heart condition that puts them at risk.
Mary Taft's daughter, Nina, owes her life to cardiopulmonary resuscitation and the use of an automated external defibrillator, or AED.
Taft, a Bend resident, was watching 13-year-old Nina play soccer when the young athlete suddenly collapsed, unconscious.
Since Nina had no history of heart problems, Taft said she didn't know what was going on.
"My husband just launched into action," said Taft. "He immediately started doing CPR, which he had not done since he was a lifeguard in high school, so over 30 years ago."
Taft said it was thanks to her husband's quick thinking and the soccer coach who knew there was an AED nearby that saved Nina's life.
House bill 2529 would provide funding for Oregon schools to conduct regular cardiac emergency drills and have AEDs accessible within 3 minutes from any location.
Nina has since had open heart surgery, said Taft, and made a full recovery after the sudden cardiac arrest.
Since the incident, Taft has started a heart-safe program in her community. She urged people to support the new legislation.
"Sudden cardiac arrest is the number one killer of young athletes in our country," said Taft, "so anything we can do to make our community safer our schools safer, we should be doing that."
According to the American Heart Association, about 90% of people who suffer heart attacks outside the hospital die. CPR, especially when performed immediately, can triple a victim's rate of survival.
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Some New York doctors are working on new ways to treat advanced cancers.
Chimeric Antigen Receptor, or CAR, T-cell therapy treats certain blood cancers by genetically modifying a person's T-cells to attack cancer cells.
It's been a long-growing effort from doctors at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center in Buffalo over several decades.
Dr. Renier Brentjens, the center's deputy director and chair of medicine, developed CAR T-cell therapy - and explained that it acts differently than chemotherapy.
"It doesn't have as many or as severe side effects that we see with chemotherapies," said Brentjens, "where the drugs we see in the chemotherapies that we use tend to be less specific - and so, these chemotherapies both target healthy cells as well as cancer cells."
He said there are primary side effects of CAR T-cell therapy. It can cause flu-like symptoms, low blood pressure, muscle pain and nerve damage.
Dr. Brentjens noted that one of the main challenges he faced was the initial skepticism about whether it could work.
Since its proven success with blood cancers, he said he plans to see if it can be used to treat cancerous tumors, which are more common.
Chris Vogelsang is a Western New Yorker who's faced lymphoma for 14 years after multiple relapses. After one recurrence, he was given the chance by Roswell Park to try CAR T-cell therapy.
He could have tried another stem cell transplant, but that would require finding a donor. Vogelsang said the side effects from his first stem cell treatment and chemotherapy were tougher than the CAR T-cell therapy.
"Having been 10, 12 years out of my first round of treatment, I knew it was pretty taxing," said Vogelsang. "I essentially lost 30 pounds in both cases. I think there was more nausea and physical illness from the stem cell transplant, as far as going through chemotherapy."
He said he's now back to an active lifestyle of playing tennis and golf.
CAR T-cell therapy has boosted survival rates for certain cancers. Studies show initial treatments for blood cancers had a prognosis of 10% to 15%. This therapy has boosted it to 40%.
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