Lupus

Jan 17 2013

Group seeks more congressional funding

Lupus is an unpredictable and misunderstood autoimmune disease that ravages different parts of the body. It is difficult to diagnose, hard to live with, and a challenge to treat. According to a recent survey by the Lupus Foundation of America, an estimated 1.5 million Americans have lupus. Black women, in particular, are three times more likely to develop the disease than White women.

Stanley O. Williford  |   OW Editor
Aug 4 2011

A good thing for a good cause

The show was curiously called “Jazzin’ It Up for Lupus,” which seems almost an oxymoron when you place the term Jazz alongside the disease’s dreaded symptoms. But it also had another name—the “9th annual Jazz Gospel Benefit Concert.”

Held Saturday evening at the California African American Museum with about 150 persons in attendance, the concert might have left the uninitiated wondering what they had just witnessed.

Turns out it was something deliriously wonderful.

Juliana D. Norwood  |   OW Staff Writer
Jul 7 2011

Three times more likely to get the disease

Lupus is a serious health problem that mainly affects young women. It is most people common in teenagers and young adults, from ages 15 to 44, which are roughly the chidbearing years. People of all races may get lupus. However, Black women are three times more likely to develop lupus than White women.

Lupus is a disease that attacks the immune system, rendering it unable to defend the body against illness, and may affect the joints, the skin, the kidneys, the lungs, the heart, or the brain.

Across Black America

Here’s a look at African American people and issues making headlines throughout the country.
 

Alabama
Freeman A. Hrabowski, president of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, will address the annual African American Business Council luncheon on June 28. Hrabowski, who is chairman of President Barack Obama’s Advisory Commission on Education Excellence for African Americans, has a national reputation for his work studying the performance of minority students in math and science. Hrabowski, named one of the 10 best college presidents in the country by Time magazine, was a child leader in the Civil Rights Movement in Birmingham in the 1960s.
 

Arkansas
The Liberty Counsel filed a motion and a brief in United States District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas seeking to intervene on behalf of a Concepts of Life crisis pregnancy center to defend against a suit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union and the Center for Reproductive Rights. The groups seek to impose a permanent injunction before the Human Heartbeat Protection Act goes into effect July 18. Liberty Counsel also filed a brief opposing the ACLU’s request for an injunction. The “Heartbeat” bill states that when a woman seeks an abortion at or after the 12th week, doctors must test for a fetal heartbeat before an abortion is performed and inform the pregnant mother that the child in her womb has a heartbeat. If a heartbeat is detected, a woman cannot have an abortion, except in cases of rape, incest, and if a mother’s life is in danger. “As we promised when the legislation was introduced, Liberty Counsel will defend this law without reservation for the people of Arkansas, born and pre-born,” said Matt Staver, founder and chairman of Liberty Counsel. “No right is more foundational than the right to life. Without life, all other rights are irrelevant,” concluded Staver.