Indianapolis Recorder, Indianapolis, Marion County, 9 August 1997 — Page 15

t

People & Trends

SATURDAY, AUGUST 0.1M7 ■ PAGE B7

AIDS becoming a bigger factor in Black community

Nathan Rush manages ASAP, which is designed to help individuals with the disease pay for their medication. (Recorder Photo By Curtis Guynn)

\

By MONYCA D. COLEMAN Staff Writer

“The question everybody always asks me is where did HIV/AIDS come from,” says Brenda Gude, program director for Project Outreach, which is funded by the Department of Mental Health. “Some people say it was developed in a lab by scientists, others say it came from the green monkey in Africa, and still others say it is God’s punishment. Well, the answer is we don’t know where HIV/AIDS came from and it really isn’t important, what is important is the disease is here and it’s killing people—our people—at an alarming rate.” Recent media hype has suggested Black females have contracted the disease and are dying from the disease faster than any other social group. But is it really hype? “No,” says Gude. “The trend of Black women becoming HIV infected is on the rise. In fact, the number of HIV infected Black women in this city is at an all time high.” Gude also says it is hard to really pinpoint the number of Blacks with the disease in this city, state or even country because Blacks do not get tested for the disease as regularly as whites. “We as Blacks are taught early on that you don’t talk about things like this,” Gude says. “We don’t talk about

things that are so close to us. Just recently we started talking about things like incest.” Gude teaches HIV/AIDS awareness, education, and works very closely with individuals who may have substance abuse issues. She works out of the Indiana Community AIDS Action Network office and she also has an office at the Drug Crisis Referral Center in Evansville, Ind. “Basically, I teach AIDS 101,” says Gude. “I structure my presentation to the facility I am speaking to. The message is the same whether I am talking to the religious community or a group of concerned business leaders, however, what changes are the actual words used.” In her presentations Gude teaches the meaning of monogamy, she says the number of people who don’t know what monogamy means is outrageous. She also teaches behavior modification and change, what protection you can use against diseases and how to use it, and can also refer individuals to facilities that can help with treatments and counseling. Gude, who is a registered nurse, first became interested in helping individuals with AIDS when she saw first hand how they were being treated. After that experience she became interested in educating the public about the disease. “The biggest misconceptions about the disease is that you can get it from mosquitos and only homosexuals get it,”

says Gude. “This disease is an equal opportunity disease. It doesn’t care about your financial status, age, color, race or whatever.” ICAAN also funds several other programs including the AIDS Substance Abuse Program, the AIDS Drug Assistance Program, the Early Intervention Assistance Program and the Health Insurance Assistance Program. Nathan Rush manages ASAP, which is designed to help individuals with the disease pay for their medication. ASAP has three satellite offices in the city. One is in the Damien Center, the other two are located at Wishard and Methodist Hospitals. “Once the initial assessment has been taken,” says Rush. “The individual is referred to the program that best suits their needs.” The programs are totally confidential and concentrate on ^helping individuals with the disease maintain as much of a normal lifestyle as possible. In some cases counseling is available as well as dental and eye care. “We want to help as many people as we can cope with this disease,” says Rush. “This is a message that needs to be told in our community.” For more information on the ICAANprograms, call9203190.

“Hoosier Millionaire” goes into overtime to find a winner

“I watch the program all the time, and I’ve always wished that I could be on the show,” said Frieda Barrett of Goshen. Barrett’s wishes came true when she appeared as a contestant on “Hoosier Millionaire” and took home $119,000. Barrett, the mother of two.

grandmother of four, and great grandmother of four, got off to a slow start. Barrett’s first number selection revealed $1,000. In round two, Barrett added $8,000 to her first round total. Her final preliminary round pick revealed $2,000. Going into the bonus round, Barrett was

tied with Virgil Fisherof Nappanee with $11,000. Barrett and Fisher trailed J im Putnam of Indianapolis, who had accumulated $13,000. Fisher made a selection worth $1,000 which was not enough to keep him in the game. He ended the night with $12,000. Barrett’s selection of $3,000 and Putnam’s

selection of $1,000 forced another bonus round pick. Putnam’s selection revealed $2,000, giving him a game ending total of $16,000. Barrett’s selection revealed $5,000, giving her a total of $19,000 and a trip to the millionaire round. Barrett had d ecided before the show that she wasn’t taking any

chances if she was lucky enough to make it to the millionaire round. “I decided to play it safe,” Barrett said of her decision to take home the guaranteed $100,000. Barrett went home with $119,000. With her winnings, Barrett plans to help

her daughters.

A place to come home to

Habitat for Humanity, former President Jimmy Carter’s project, recently held an open house and dedication ceremony for the first home in Barrington Gardens, 3206

of the Indianapolis community pitched In to make the project a reality. This eras the first time construction for Habitat for Humanity was conducted In Indianapolis In 20 years.

Link between obesity and chronic diseases found A recent study in the American Journal of Epidemiology showed a strong correlation between the severity of obesity and the likelihood of chronic disease. The study found that being moderately obese did not increase the likelihood of chronic disease while being severely obese increased the odds of chronic disease significantly. Studying data from 1,150 Black women, the authors of the study also reported that the high rates of mobility difficulty observed among the severely obese appear to be a result of the relatively high chronic disease prevalence and severity. Obesity prevalence continues to increase in the US. and it is most prevalent among Black women. Authors Daniel O. Clark, a medical sociologist at the Regenstrief Institute for Health Care and assistant professor of medicine at the Indiana University School of Medicine, and Simon M. Mungai, MP a research assistant at the Regenstrief Institute for Health Care also noted increased pain in the severely obese. “Obesity prevalence continues to increase in the U.S. and it is most prevalent among Black women. Whether moderate obesity affects quality of life can be and is debated, but there is little doubt that severe obesity has a substantial negative consequence for health, function, and quality of life among Black women,” said Clark. In this group of women, those who were severely obese were 3 times more likely to have diabetes, 1.5 times more likely to suffer from cardiopulmonary disease, 2.5 times more likely to have cancer, 1.6 times more likely to have hypertension, 2.5 times more likely to have heart disease, 2.5 times more likely to suffer from congestive heart failure and 1.5 times more likely to have arthritis than all females in the general population. Rates of severe obesity are nearly two times greater among Black women than among white females. Chronic disease prevalence is generally much higher as

well.

Nationwide, a majority of Black women over the age of 50 are obese. They have at least one chronic disease and experience mobility difficulty. Previous studies have shown that obesity elevates the risk and severity of osteoarthritis of die knee in all women by increasing the mechanical stress that is placed on the knee. 8m HEALTH, PageBS