Important February 2010 Health Events

Last year, I regularly brought you a monthly schedule of health observances. Most of those observances repeat each year so I won’t give you the whole list again. However, I’d like to focus more on special events and observances as well as resources scheduled for the month of February.

February is American Heart Month
February is of course THE MONTH of the HEART and the American Heart Association is driving force behind this campaign.

February 5 is US National Wear Red Day
Hey, it’s time to take out your red outfit again although with the current winter conditions, it’s better be a red ski outfit. But yes, it’s Wear Red Day again this coming Friday – red for women’s heart health. Nothing to wear that is red, yet warm? Well, a red beanie, a red scarf or a red pin will do.

February 1 to 7 is World Salt Awareness Week
Salt is becoming a big issue even in the US. In the next few days, I’ll be bringing you some more details about the ongoing salt discussion. This year’s World Salt Awareness Week focus is on “Salt and Your Health”, with the goal of raising “awareness that a high salt diet can not only lead to high blood pressure, but to osteoporosis, obesity, stomach cancer, kidney stones, and stroke.”

February 7 is US National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day
Get educated. Get tested. Get involved. Get treated. That is what this day si all about. This year’s theme for National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day is “HIV/AIDS Prevention – A Choice and a Lifestyle.”
The director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Dr. Anthony S. Fauci issued the following statement in observance of the Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day:

“African-Americans continue to bear the largest and most disproportionate burden of HIV/AIDS of all racial and ethnic groups in the United States. While black men and women made up 13 percent of the U.S. population in 2007, they accounted for more than half of all new HIV/AIDS diagnoses that year and nearly half of all Americans living with HIV/AIDS. For black women ages 35 to 44, HIV was the third leading cause of death in 2006. In our nation’s capital, whose HIV/AIDS epidemic is among the worst in the United States, 6.5 percent of black men are living with the virus — a percentage higher than that of any other racial, ethnic or gender group in the city,and higher than in many countries in Africa.

Today, on the 10th annual National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day, we are inspired to improve our efforts to overcome this public health crisis in the black community. We have a national responsibility to alleviate the HIV/AIDS-related suffering of African-Americans by ensuring that they have full knowledge of — and access to — all proven forms of HIV prevention, treatment and care. The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health, joins African-Americans in remembering those who have died with AIDS and in fighting this modern plague.”