A Season for Giving

A nonprofit that supports women in need of mammograms launches a summer fundraising campaign, plus more of the week's health news

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Reach Out for Life needs your help to ensure access to mammograms to women in need.

The Richmond-based nonprofit is seeking donations through Aug. 20 in its Summer Giving Campaign. Reach Out’s goal is to raise $40,000, which will be used in its efforts in providing access to free mammograms to underserved groups and to raise awareness of the importance of regular mammogram screening in detecting early-stage breast cancer.

Reach Out is a successor to the Ellen Shaw de Paredes Breast Cancer Foundation. Its mission has switched from mainly providing breast cancer screenings to women who could not otherwise afford the procedure to education and advocating for regular mammograms.

“There are still a lot of people out there who ignore it,” says Norah Lind, the nonprofit’s executive director.

More than 500 women have received help through Reach Out in the past year. They are targeting efforts in the Tri-Cities of Colonial Heights, Hopewell and Petersburg, a portion of the state with a large population of underserved women. Reach Out’s efforts there have resulted in increased outreach, from helping a handful of women to more than 300.

About 12.5 percent of Virginians have no health insurance, according to the Virginia Health Care Foundation. Reach Out seeks to provide a safety net to people who don’t qualify for government programs, says Lind. For example, they helped a man in need of a screening (Medicare covers diagnostic, but not screening mammography for men).

They concentrate efforts on underserved populations, including African-American and Hispanic women; each demographic makes up about 40 percent of the Reach Out caseload. Lind notes that black women are more likely to die from breast cancer than whites because their cancers are often diagnosed at later stages. African-Americans are also prone to more aggressive cancers, she says.

The nonprofit also would like to extend its services into rural areas in southern Virginia. “We want to make sure everybody has the possibility of early detection,” says Lind.

Reach Out also will hold a golf tournament fundraiser, Swing for Pink, in October at the Sycamore Creek Golf Club in Goochland.

ZIKA VIRUS UPDATE

Zika, the mosquito-borne virus that may cause birth defects and spread last year across Central and South America, has proved to be less of a risk so far this summer.

There are no active areas of Zika spreading in the continental United States, and the number of cases of Zika nationally that were acquired elsewhere declined significantly, according to information from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Mosquito-borne Zika outbreaks occurred last year in Florida and Texas.

In Virginia, there were 112 reported Zika cases in 2016, all acquired elsewhere. This year, there have been only 4 through July 12, according to the Virginia Department of Health. The state reports 65 pregnant women tested positive for Zika exposure last year.

Nationally, the CDC reports 5,102 Zika cases in 2016 in the continental United States, most coming from mosquito bites outside the country. There were 224 from local mosquito transmission in Florida and Texas, and 48 through from exposure from other means, including sexual transmission and from exposure in a laboratory. Through July 12, there have been 163 Zika cases nationally, all but one stemming from travel abroad or to U.S. territories. The one case stemmed from sexual transmission.

“Obviously, it’s been a different disease pattern, thankfully, says Danny Avula, director of the Richmond City Health District.

That’s great news for prospective  and new parents, as Zika causes an array of birth defects. Through June 27, 1,687 women exposed to Zika virus gave birth, according to the CDC. There were 91 incidents of birth defects, and 8 pregnancies were lost that involved birth defects. That’s about 5.7 percent of the births. The CDC reports that birth defects occur in about 3 percent of all babies born in the United States each year.

HEALTHY DEVELOPMENTS

A roundup of the week’s health and medicine news

  • BehealthyRVA.org, a database from the Healthy Communities Institute on health resources in Richmond and the Northern Neck, launched today.
  • Free health seminars on a variety of subjects are offered by VCU Health at Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden. A session today will focus on injury prevention and provide information on the Level I Trauma Center at VCU Medical Center. Seminar participants can stroll the garden for free beginning at 4 p.m., followed by registration and refreshments at 5 and the seminar at 5:30.
  • Take a summer bike break on Thursday, July 27, with Breakaway RVA. The family-friendly excursion will begin at 6 p.m. at several sites around the city, and all riders will converge on a mystery destination.
  • The Massey Cancer Center at Virginia Commonwealth University has been recognized as a designated cancer center by the National Cancer Institute. Again. Actually, for 42 consecutive years. Designation is based on Massey “demonstrating superior capabilities in cancer education and in researching new and better cancer treatments as well as methods for prevention, detection and survivorship,” according to a release. The designation comes with a $11 million Cancer Center Support Grant for training, trials, education and research.