Articles

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Posted 9/25/2001

> Healthcare in America: Message from the Co-Chairs
(Faith And The City Newsletter, Summer 2001)

As the world's wealthiest and most egalitarian society, we should be a pacesetter in healthcare, placing quality medical treatment within the reach of all of our people. Yet, by some important healthcare measures, we rank closer to the world's developing nations than to many of our industrialized counterparts.


Posted 9/17/2001

> Fact Sheet: Who are Georgia's Uninsured?
(Georgia Department of Community Health, August 27, 2001)
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Georgia's uninsured earn less than 200 percent of the federal poverty level ($34,100 per year for a family of four) and are more likely to use the emergency room or hospital-based clinics as a main source of medical care. This fact sheet offers a range of data, including demographics and employment information.


> Culture Counts in Mental Health Services and Research Finds New Surgeon General Report
(U.S. Surgeon General, August 26, 2001)

Striking disparities in access, quality and availability of mental health services exist for racial and ethnic minority Americans, according to the new report of the Surgeon General released today, Mental Health: Culture, Race and Ethnicity.


> Surgeon General Releases Call to Action to Promote Sexual Health and Responsible Sexual Behavior
(U.S. Surgeon General, July 9, 2001)

On June 28, Surgeon General David Satcher unveiled science-based strategies, which he said represent an effort to find "common ground" upon which the nation could work to promote sexual health and responsible sexual behavior.


> New Study Profiles Women's Use of Health Care
(Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, July 25, 2001)

Even excluding pregnancy-related visits, women were 33 percent more likely than men to visit a doctor, although this difference decreased with age. The rate of doctor visits for such reasons as annual examinations and preventive services was 100 percent higher for women than for men and medication patterns differed significantly.


> New CDC Report Shows Teen Birth Rate Hits Record Low
(Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, July 24, 2001)

The U.S. teen birth rate declined to a record low in 2000, according to a preliminary report on births from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The report showed that the 2000 rate was 22 percent lower than the rate in 1991 when the decline began.


> Mortality Declines for Several Leading Causes of Death in 1999
(Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, June 26, 2001)

Mortality for several leading causes of death declined in 1999, according to preliminary figures from CDC, released today by Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy G. Thompson.


> Fewer Than Half of Americans Receive Some of the Most Valuable Health Care Services
(Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, June 22, 2001)

Fewer than half of all Americans receive some of the most valuable preventive health services available, according to a new study released today by the nonprofit group Partnership for Prevention.


> First Atlas of Geographic and Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Heart Disease Death Rates for U.S. Men
(Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, June 20, 2001)

The greatest burden for heart disease exists among African American men and among men residing in parts of the rural south, according to a new report, Men and Heart Disease: An Atlas of Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Mortality, released today by CDC and West Virginia University.


> CDC Issues Report on the Top Ten States with the Highest Rates of TB
(Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, June 12, 2001)

The number of new tuberculosis (TB) cases reported in the United States declined by seven percent from 1999 to 2000, continuing an eight-year downward trend since the TB epidemic peaked in 1992. Seven of the top ten states had a decrease in TB rates between 1999 and 2000, but three states--Alaska, Arkansas and Georgia--reported increases in rates.


> 20 Years of AIDS: 450,000 Americans Dead, Over 1 Million Have Been Infected
(Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, May 31, 2001)

AIDS has had a tremendous toll in the United States. Since the first case was identified in 1981, 774,467 AIDS cases have been reported, and approximately 450,000 Americans have died.


> Poisoned Playgrounds
(AlterNet, May 24, 2001)
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One 12-foot-long board of pressure-treated wood -- the material of many playgrounds -- contains enough arsenic to kill 250 adults. Imagine what it does to kids playing there.


> New CDC Chemical Exposure Report Begins to Fill Critical Information Gaps in Environmental Health for the U.S. Population
(Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, March 21, 2001)

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention today released the first National Report on Human Exposure to Environmental Chemicals, an important new research tool that will provide better information on levels of exposure to environmental chemicals, and over time what these levels mean for public health.


> More American Children and Teens Are Overweight
(Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, March 12, 2001)

The latest findings from CDC's National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey show that more and more children and teens are overweight, continuing the pattern the survey documented over the past two decades when the number of overweight children and teens nearly doubled.


> Surgeon General Launches Effort to Develop Action Plan to Combat Overweight, Obesity
(U.S. Surgeon General, January 8, 2001)

The number of overweight children, adolescents, and adults has risen over the past four decades. Total costs (medical cost and lost productivity) attributable to obesity alone amounted to an estimated $99 billion in 1995. During 1988-94, 11 percent of children and adolescents aged 6 to 19 years were overweight or obese. During the same years, 23 percent of adults aged 20 years and older were considered obese.


> Surgeon General Releases a National Action Agenda on Children's Mental Health
(U.S. Surgeon General, January 3, 2001)

According to the report, the nation is facing a public crisis in mental health for children and adolescents. In the United States, 1 in 10 children and adolescents suffer from mental illness severe enough to cause some level of impairment. Yet, in any given year, it is estimated that fewer than 1 in 5 of these children receives needed treatment. The long-term consequences of untreated childhood disorders are costly, in both human and fiscal terms.


> Youth Violence: A Report of the Surgeon General (Executive Summary)
(U.S. Surgeon General, January, 2001)

Youth violence is a high-visibility, high-priority concern in every sector of U.S. society. No community, whether affluent or poor, urban, suburban, or rural, is immune from its devastating effects. In the decade extending from roughly 1983 to 1993, an epidemic of violent, often lethal behavior broke out in this country, forcing millions of young people and their families to cope with injury, disability, and death. This epidemic left lasting scars on victims, perpetrators, and their families and friends. It also wounded entire communities and, in ways not yet fully understood, the United States as a whole.

2003 | 2002 | 2001 | 2000