Wednesday, June 08, 2011

Feds seek to close African-American health gap - USATODAY.com

Feds seek to close African-American health gap - USATODAY.com: ...As a volunteer for a program organized by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the University of Alabama, Robertson is a diplomat, working to erase nagging health disparities between black Americans and all other Americans.

Death rates for black Americans surpass those of Americans overall for heart disease, cancer, diabetes, HIV and homicide, the CDC reports.

'Educationally, we're doing better. Economically, we're doing better, so why is it that this gap will not go away?' asks Michelle Gourdine, a pediatrician at Johns Hopkins School of Public Health and author of the newly released Reclaiming Our Health: A Guide to African American Wellness.