A youth health forum on Chicago’s South Side Saturday drew more than 1,000 teenagers who were tested for HIV/AIDS and other diseases, The Chicago Tribune reports. Within 20 minutes, following a simple saliva swab, the youths learned their HIV status before receiving a T-shirt, candy or a pen. Even those who said they were not sexually active took advantage of the free screening, according to the Tribune. “It’s good to get them in the habit, even if they haven’t been sexually active,” said Regina Hampton, a case manager for Circle Family HealthCare Network, which administered the screenings. “You can get it from blood transfusions or a freak accident.” Saturday marked the second annual Teen Test Day, and organizers are saying it was even more successful than last year when the event drew 650 teenagers who were tested for HIV, which infects Black teens more than any other group. Teen Test Day is sponsored by the Metropolitan Area Group for Igniting Civilizations, a Chicago youth group.

Doctors aren’t talking with their young patients about healthy decisions, according to results of a study published online by the Journal of Adolescent Health. “Preventive care is a crucial element of quality primary care for adolescents,” Dr. Sally Adams, of the University of California, San Francisco, and colleagues. Most causes of sickness and death in adolescents can be prevented. “Many of the health and lifestyle behaviors established during adolescence have long-standing health effects across the entire lifespan,” the researchers say. According to Reuters Health, the researchers used the 2003 California Health Interview Survey to examine coverage of preventive health topics during routine medical care for 2,192 patients between the ages of 12 and 17 years who had a physical exam within the prior 6 months. Teenagers, Reuters writes, told whether they talked with their physicians about tobacco, alcohol, drugs, seatbelt use, helmet use, sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), violence, exercise, and nutrition. Discussions about health topics ranged from 15 percent for violence to 76 percent for nutrition and exercise. Younger adolescents reported discussing safety more often and less likely to discuss violence and STDs compared with their older peers, according to Reuters. Girls reported discussing tobacco and helmets less than males, but exercise and STDs more. Compared with White adolescents, Hispanic patients reported more discussion on most topics and Black patients reported more discussion on nutrition and less of violence; Asian adolescents reported discussing seatbelts and helmets more than White adolescents, according to Reuters.

South African teens are getting high off HIV drugs. Teens in South Africa are reportedly buying medication used to treat HIV and AIDS and smoking it to get high. Patients and healthcare workers are selling them the meds, reports the BBC. “I couldn’t believe it. I was shocked at first, these were school boys in their uniforms,” documentary maker, Tooli Nhlapo, told the BBC. “They take a pill and grind it, until it is a powder. Some also mix it with painkillers and others mix it with marijuana. They showed me how they roll it and smoke it,” said the filmmaker. AIDS patients have been caught smoking their medication instead of using it as prescribed, which doctors say will not help treat the virus. The anti-retroviral medication acts as a hallucinogen and has the effect of relaxing those who smoke it. “When you look at them, just a few seconds after taking it, they are in another world,” Nhlapo said. Healthy people who smoke the drugs could be putting themselves in danger, according Dr. Kas Kasongo. “People who are healthy that are taking this medication are exposing themselves to potential side-effects of these drugs,” he said. He also said patients are also putting their health at risk by not taking the drugs as they are supposed to. “We don’t have more than 20 anti-retroviral drugs on the market and, remember, they have to be used in a cocktail of at least three or four,” he said. “Therefore, abusing a particular drug, whichever it is, is a concern because it can give rise to resistance to drugs within that same group.” 

Zimbabwe president says cholera outbreak is over. Despite what international health organizations are saying, Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe believes that the outbreak in cholera in his nation is over, reports Reuters. “I am happy we are being assisted by others, and we have arrested cholera,” Mugabe said in a speech Thursday where he also accused the West of trying to invade Zimbabwe. “Now that there is no cholera, there is no case for war.” The water-borne illness, which is normally easily treated and prevented, has killed almost 800 people in the nation, and a United Nations agency says that number is on the rise.  The death toll rose to 783 and 16,403 Zimbabwean are believed to have cholera, according to the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. “The figures speak for themselves. We hope that the joint efforts of the United Nations and government will contribute to halting the epidemic,” said a spokeswoman for the group in response to Mugabe’s words. And U.S. agency, USAID, also insists the outbreak is ongoing and that they are sending an additional $6.2 million in aid. “This is a cholera outbreak that is ongoing and urgent. This is clearly a humanitarian crisis,” an official from the group told reporters. The nation’s opposition movement, Movement for Democratic Change, whose leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, is in deadlocked talks to form a unity government with Mugabe, also denounced his claim. “We remain on the side of the people, while Zanu-Pf [Mugabe's party] remains on the side of terror,” and MDC statement said. French officials also accuse the Zimbabwe president of not letting in aid workers to slow the disease’s spread. “Contrary to what Mugabe says, the cholera epidemic is not under control. … France strongly regrets this decision and calls on Zimbabwe’s authorities to allow aid to reach the population,” a spokesman said. The disease could spread to 60,000 people if it’s not treated, says the U.N.

Black teens are less likely to smoke than Whites. During their teen years, Blacks are much less likely to smoke than Whites, a new study says. However, most of this advantage disappears by mid-adulthood, researchers say. There is a puzzle here in that usually the health disadvantages in African Americans show up early in life and get worse as they get older,” says Fred Pampel, Ph.D., a sociology professor at the University of Colorado at Boulder. “For cigarette-smoking, African Americans tend to act in a more healthy way during their teens, but that advantage goes away by middle age.” The study appears in the December issue of the Journal of Health and Social Behavior. Pampel used data from two surveys to look at groups of White and Black teens to see how their cigarette-smoking patterns changed as they aged. “Resources, such as higher income, more education, better access to medical care and greater use of nicotine replacement products, help Whites quit at a faster rate,” Pampel said. But C. Tracy Orleans, Ph.D., of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, said the study did not factor in possible socio-demographic differences in exposure to higher tobacco prices and taxes, which “deter youth onset and promote quitting, especially among low-income smokers, and protection by worksite and comprehensive smoke-free airs laws, which affect adult cessation more than youth initiation.”

 Celebrities stand up to diabetes. Several celebrities are talking about their battles with diabetes during National Diabetes Month. To see what they have to say, go to BET.com/Body & Soul.

Tweens, teens double their diabetes drug use. America’s tweens and teens more than doubled their use of type 2 diabetes medications between 2002 and 2005, with girls between 10 and 14 years of age showing a whopping 166-percent increase. What is behind the increase? The most likely cause, scientists say, is obesity, which is closely associated with type 2 diabetes. The finding is included in a study of chronic medication use in children ages 5 to 19 released today in the journal Pediatrics by researchers from the Saint Louis University School of Medicine, pharmacy benefit manager Express Scripts and the Kansas Health Institute. In addition to diabetes, the study found that the use of blood pressure, cholesterol, attention-deficit disorder and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADD/ADHD), asthma and depression medications increased at varying levels during the four year period. For help with controlling diabetes, see BET.com’s “Stand Up To Diabetes” feature.

Teens who need flu shots aren’t getting them. Too few American teens with asthma and other high-risk illnesses aren’t getting their flu shots, a new study finds. Researchers looked at vaccination rates from 1992 to 2002 for 18,703 adolescents with asthma, cardiac disease, immune system disorders and other conditions. What they discovered is that during the study period, vaccination rates improved, but only from 8 percent to 15 percent. From 1999 to 2002, only 11 percent of the patients received vaccinations during all four seasons, and more than 56 percent received no flu shots during those four years. Doctors are somewhat at fault, the researchers say, because from 45 percent to 55 percent of the teens who had one or more health-care visits during the flu season didn’t get a flu shot. Those who had preventive visits were more likely to receive the influenza vaccine. “Influenza vaccination has been recommended for adolescents with high-risk conditions for well over a decade,” study author Mari Nakamura, a clinical fellow in pediatrics at Children’s Hospital Boston, said. In children and adolescents with high-risk conditions, flu can lead to severe illness, hospitalization and even death. The study’s findings can be found in the November issue of Pediatrics.

BET News Quiz: A reggae star is cleared of charges; a Black lawmaker apologizes to Sarah Palin; and a Philly dad is in jail for what his son brought to school. Take the quiz!

Mental problems rise among Black male teens. A significant increase in mental illness and behavioral problems among African-American male teenagers demonstrates the need for new approaches to treatment and better understanding of the complex challenges facing these youths, according to a policy paper issued by Community Voices: Healthcare for the Underserved, an advocacy group based at Morehouse School of Medicine. The paper, titled “The Secret Epidemic: Exploring the Mental Health Crisis Affecting Adolescent African-American Males,” outlines numbers that show that mental health problems are rising among members of this at-risk group, that their access to treatment facilities is relatively low, and that treatment strategies must be revamped to address the socioeconomic issues they face. “Our research found that many young Black males are treatable, but they are going undiagnosed because of failures in America’s health-care system,” said Dr. Henrie M. Treadwell, director of Community Voices, a nonprofit seeking to improve health services and access to health care. “Our entire society feels the impact of this failure. Suicides and homicides have increased for this group, and the residual effect is impacting communities across the country. This problem must be addressed.” Dr. Claire Xanthos, a health services research specialist, wrote the paper, which cites studies showing that Black males ages 15 through 19 die from homicide at 46 times the rate of their White counterparts and that from 1980 to 1995, the suicide rate for Black adolescents rose from 5.6 to 13 per 100,000 of the population.

Sign of times? It’s free speech; but did an Obama sign in a man’s front yard go too far? Get more at You(th) Vote.

The Pennsylvania youths allegedly hurled racial slurs at the Mexican immigrant.

Three teens accused of beating to death a Mexican immigrant in a tiny Pennsylvania coal-mining town last month must stand trial, a judge ruled Monday. The judge agreed with prosecutors that there is enough evidence to try 17-year-old Colin Walsh and 16-year-old Brandon Piekarsky on charges of third-degree murder and ethnic intimidation; Derrick Donchak, 18, will stand trial for ethnic intimidation, aggravated assault and other charges. All three young men are football players at Shenandoah Valley High School, which is about an hour and a half northwest of Philadelphia. According to witnesses, the defendants yelled, “Dirty Mexican!” and other racial epithets as they kicked and bludgeoned Luis Ramirez, even as he lay motionless in the street. Ramirez, who fathered a child with a local White teen, was frequently called racial slurs by Whites in the community, some youths testified at an earlier pretrial hearing. Seventeen-year-old Ben Lawson testified that “Ramirez was fighting with one of the suspects, Derrick M. Donchak, when another, Colin Walsh, sucker-punched the victim,” The Associated Press reported. “A third suspect, Brandon Piekarsky, then kicked Ramirez in the head while he lay motionless in the street.” Lawyers for Piekarsky and Walsh have said there is no evidence to support the homicide charges.

Here’s yet another reason to catch those Zzzzs.
Sleepless teens risk high blood pressure. Teens who don’t get enough sleep or have poor-quality sleep run the risk of elevated blood pressure, a new study finds. It’s the first study to make such a connection, said the study’s senior author, Dr. Susan Redline, director of the University Hospitals Sleep Center at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland. “In adults, there has been evidence that less than six hours of sleep a night was associated with high blood pressure levels,” said Redline, who is professor of medicine and pediatrics at Case Western Reserve. “No study has been done in adolescents.” Redline and her colleagues studied 238 boys and girls, ages 13 to 16, asking about their sleep habits. They found that 11 percent of them slept less than 6.5 hours a night, and 26 percent had poor “sleep efficiency,” with frequent awakenings at night. One of every seven teens in the study had either hypertension, which is high blood pressure, greater than 120 over 80, or borderline high blood pressure called pre-hypertension. Teens with less than 85 percent sleep efficiency had nearly three times the odds of high blood pressure, the researchers reported. “That was one of the more unique findings, that poor sleep quality is associated with high blood pressure,” Redline said.

Don’t drink too much Red Bull. Too much of a good thing isn’t always good, scientists in Australia found. Too much of the popular Red Bull energy drink may lead to heart damage, they say, after studying 30 university students, ages 20 to 24. The researchers found that drinking just one 250 ml sugar-free can of the caffeinated drink boosted the “stickiness” of the blood and increased the risk of blood clots. After drinking Red Bull, the students had a cardiovascular profile similar to that of someone with heart disease, The Times of London reported. The results were alarming and suggest that older adults with symptoms of heart disease shouldn’t drink too much Red Bull, said study author Scott Willoughby, of the Cardiovascular Research Center at the Royal Adelaide Hospital and Adelaide University. In a statement, Red Bull officials said the drink had been proved safe by numerous scientific studies, and that it had never been banned from anywhere it had been introduced, the Times reported. Red Bull is sold in 143 countries but is banned in Norway, Denmark and some other countries due to health concerns.

Chemical used in baby bottles is safe. A chemical used in the making of baby bottles and other food containers is not dangerous, U.S. Food and Drug Administration researchers have decided. FDA scientists have confirmed the agency’s original decision that the chemical bisphenol A, which hardens plastic, is not a threat to either infants or adults. The European Food Safety Authority made a similar finding in late July. Trace amounts of bisphenol A have been found to leach into food containers, the FDA acknowledged, but the agency’s scientists said they found no evidence that such small amounts were harmful, The Associated Press reports. The FDA findings are not the final word, according to AP. A September meeting is scheduled, at which experts outside the FDA will debate bisphenol A’s safety. The FDA itself has kept the issue open. More research is needed because “there are always uncertainties associated with safety decisions,” AP quotes the FDA as saying.

All grown up now, a group of hero teens are honored.

It was 50 years ago that a group of teens in Wichita, Kansas, pulled a Rosa Parks on the old Dockum Drug Store and sparked a national sit-in movement. On Saturday, hundreds turned out to honor that group of unwitting civil rights giants for their three-week resistance effort that led to copycats in other cities. It was the original Wichita resisters who helped bring about an end to segregated public accommodations. “We simply wanted to make a change and we did,” said Carol Parks Hahn, one of the original squatters. Disgusted at a policy that required Black patrons to go to the end of the lunch counter and ring a bell for service, the defiant teens marched into Dockum’s every day for three weeks and sat at the lunch counter. Of course, they weren’t served. “The owner came in one morning and said serve them I’m losing too much money. I happened to be there that day,” Parks Hahn said. “That’s how simple it was to get rid of a long history of discrimination. We changed the policy of the largest drug chain in Kansas, others in Wichita followed suit. We were very pleased we were successful.” Added Joyce Glass, another participant. “It’s a blessing to be recognized. It’s something I never dreamed of.”

Some want the Black Revolutionary War monument revived. In Virginia, some are pushing for a monument to the Blacks who fought in the Revolutionary War, saying it’s important to let the world know that everybody who fought for U.S. independence from Britain didn’t have pale skin and powdered wigs. One of those making the case for the first memorial on the mall to honor Black colonial soldiers is Maurice Barboza, a Virginian and former lobbyist, who runs something called the National Liberty Fund D.C. In the 1980s, Congress approved the concept, but poor fundraising initiative led to the demise of the project.

Tobacco companies made smoking less harsh

Scientists say that the tobacco industry tweaked menthol levels in specific brands of cigarettes, deliberately creating a milder experience for first-time smokers, ScienceDaily.com reports. Menthol masks the harshness and irritation of cigarettes, allowing delivery of an effective dose of nicotine, the addictive chemical in cigarettes. These milder products were then marketed to the youngest potential consumers, Harvard School of Public Health researchers found. “For decades, the tobacco industry has carefully manipulated menthol content not only to lure youth but also to lock in lifelong adult customers,” said Howard Koh, professor and associate dean for public health at Harvard and a co-author of the paper. Lead author Jennifer M. Kreslake, a research analyst, and colleagues from the Tobacco Control Research Program at Harvard, reviewed internal tobacco industry documents on menthol product development, conducted laboratory tests to measure menthol content in U.S. brands, examined market research reports and drew data from the 2006 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, an annual nationally representative survey among U.S. residents 12 years and older. The industry documents revealed that tobacco companies researched how controlling menthol levels could increase brand sales among specific groups. The 2006 national survey showed that a significantly greater proportion of adolescent and young adult smokers used menthol brands, compared to older smokers. In 2006, 43.8 percent of current smokers, ages 12 to 17 years old, reported using menthol cigarettes, as did 35.6 percent of current smokers 18 to 24 years old. By contrast, 30.6 percent of smokers older than 35 reported menthol use. The researchers noted that race was also a factor in use and brand choice, with African Americans as a whole more likely to use menthol brands. African-American adolescent and young adult smokers used menthol as frequently as did older African-American smokers, but they were more likely to choose a lower-menthol variety. Earlier Harvard research described industry efforts to target African Americans with menthol brands.

Jamaica is leading the Caribbean AIDS fight
Jamaica has reduced HIV in Jamaica to about 1.5 per cent, thus leading the Caribbean fight against AIDS, the Jamaican Minister of Health Rudyard Spencer reports. The country’s success has lead to an agreement for Jamaica to receive $55.2 million from the Global Fund to further fight the deadly disease. Lauding the successes of the first Global Fund program, led by outgoing Chief of Epidemiology and AIDS Dr. Peter Figueroa, the minister reported that there was also a 35-percent decline in AIDS-related deaths between 2004 and 2006. He accredited this to overall improved access to treatment for people living with HIV/AIDS. “The mother-to-child transmission rate has also witnessed a dramatic decline, from 25 percent in 2004 to less than 10 percent in 2007,” he noted. However, while Jamaica has achieved much success in HIV control, particularly in treatment and care, risk-taking behaviors have not decreased significantly, especially among vulnerable groups and young persons. Spencer announced that the new Global Fund would be rolling out a number of initiatives to target vulnerable groups, such as prostitutes and their clients, drug users, prison inmates and young persons, among others.