Suicide is the tenth leading cause of death for all Americans (and the second leading cause of death for those between 15 and 34). People struggle with the symptoms and disabilities, and are challenged by the stigma that results from misconceptions about mental illness.
The medications, therapies, and treatments that we use to deal with different illnesses and injuries have been studied using clinical trials. According to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), African Americans represent 12% of the U.S. population but only 5% of clinical trial participants and Hispanics/Latinos make up 16% of the population but only 1% of clinical trial participants.
When a variety of racial/ethnic groups are represented in clinical trials, valuable information about certain diseases, treatments, and medications are revealed. This information helps to improve how we treat and prevent illnesses in different communities. Cardiovascular (heart) disease is one particular illness where we see major differences among different groups of people.
Currently over 29 million adults in the United States are living with diabetes; and about 1 in 4 of these people are unaware they have the disease (CDC, 2015a). Diabetes is a group of diseases that results in too much sugar in the blood, which over time can cause serious health problems, such as heart disease, vision loss and nerve damage.
Epilepsy is a general term for more than 30 types of seizures. People diagnosed with epilepsy have had more than one seizure, and they may have more than one kind of seizure. About 2.9 million people in the United States have some form of epilepsy.
Medicaid provides free or low-cost health coverage to millions of Americans including some low-income adults, families and children, pregnant women, older adults, and people with disabilities. Medicaid currently covers 74 million people, or 1 in 5 Americans.
Opioids are a group of chemicals that include natural opiates derived from the poppy (morphine and codeine) and synthetic opioids made in labs, such as oxycodone and fentanyl. By 2010, enough opioids were prescribed in America to medicate every man, woman and child around the clock for a full month every year.
Traditional efforts promoted by CDC to prevent HIV infections have depended on changing people’s behaviors. The CDC increasingly recommends the use of PrEP and PEP to prevent HIV infection.
African American women are disproportionately affected by HIV. Of all the women living with AIDS in the U.S., 60% are African American and two out of three African American women got HIV from having unprotected sex with a man.
About 2.9 million people in the United States have some form of epilepsy. A seizure happens when abnormal electrical activity in the brain results in an involuntary change in body movement or function, sensation, awareness, or behavior.