M. GAYLE MOSS

Overall, the numbers in and of themselves are pretty damning. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, in Pennsylvania 863 African-Americans accounted for new AIDS cases reported in 2004 (whites accounted for 532); Black teens made up 71.2 percent of the teen births reported in 2003 (which was greater than the national average of 64.7 percent) and the infant mortality rate among Blacks was 17.4 percent while rate among whites was 10 percent in 2001.
   
Those statistics are just one of the reasons that the Gateway Medical Society has teamed with the Pittsburgh NAACP to host a health symposium this Saturday at Hill House. Gateway is the local affiliate of the National Medical Association, the Black counterpart of the American Medical Association.
   
A legacy of discrimination still haunts the Black community.
   
Economics plays a major part of the problem; according to the Commonwealth’s Office of Health Equity, 15 percent of Black Pennsylvanians could not afford to see a health provider.
   
According to Gateway president Anita Edwards, Black medical providers make up approximately two-percent of all doctors within Allegheny County, exacerbating the crisis. In 2005, there were only 78 medical school graduates in the entire state of Pennsylvania where 688 whites completed med school; in 2002 of a total of 41,301 physicians only 715 are Black, according to KFF.
   
Edwards acknowledges that the statistics are daunting but says, “You’ve got to start somewhere.”
   
The main goal of the symposium is to reduce the disparities and increase self-awareness of individual health. “We hope we can encourage people to take a more proactive role and increase their participation in their own healthcare.”
   
The half-day symposium, entitled “It’s Your Life: A Step to a Healthier Life” will address crucial topic such as how to obtain excellent health, how illness affects you directly and how to improve your health, role family history plays in the health profile, and understand the reasons for early death in the Black community.
   
Pittsburgh NAACP president M. Gayle Moss is excited by the potential of the symposium to a positive impact on the community.
  
“Although we partnered with Gateway before, this is the first time the NAACP has been a co-sponsor,” said Moss.
  
 Part of her enthusiasm stems from her attendance at the recent NAACP conference that put health on the top of its national agenda.
   
“It’s important that we have an honest discussion on HIV and AIDS,” Moss continued. There are a lot of people walking around who are HIV-positive and don’t know it. And those who suspect it are afraid to find out. We need to talk about it because it’s killing us.”
   
There will also be free health screenings and a panel to address questions on general health issues and parenting along with a free lunch --knowledge and sustenance.
   
Recent trends, along with the stark numbers, stress the urgency of the Black health crisis--Blacks being over 10 times more likely than Whites to be diagnosed with AIDS to Blacks being 59 percent less likely than Whites to be given antibiotics for the common cold.
   
Blacks are nine percent more likely than Whites to receive poorer quality care. Blacks under age 65 being 17 percent more likely than Whites to lack health insurance to Blacks. Overall, Blacks 10 percent more likely than Whites to have worse access to care.
   
Another goal of Gateway is to increase the number of Blacks in medical school and get them past the higher hurdle - tuition.
   
“On average it costs between $150,000 and $200,000 to complete medical school,” Edwards said. “The costs make it difficult to stay in the Pittsburgh area - you go where the jobs are.”
   
Both Edwards and Moss applauded the efforts of Greg and Janet Spencer, who recently funded an endowment at Robert Morris University with an end goal of “raising” more doctors to serve Pittsburgh’s Black community.