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$10-million in health grants target minoritiesBy SHELBY OPPEL © St. Petersburg Times, published October 24, 2000 TALLAHASSEE -- African-Americans are twice as likely as white people to contract diabetes, die of a stroke or have low-birth-weight babies, according to the Florida Department of Health. With $10-million in grants over the next year and a half, state lawmakers and Gov. Jeb Bush are hoping to improve those statistics by stepping up disease prevention and treatment in minority communities. The so-called "Closing the Gap" grants will be shared by 57 local health departments, non-profit organizations and churches in 36 counties, including Pinellas and Hillsborough. The grants are targeted at reducing maternal and infant mortality, cancer, HIV/AIDS, cardiovascular disease, diabetes and at increasing immunization rates. No groups from Citrus, Hernando and Pasco applied for the grants, which were announced Monday by state Secretary of Health Robert Brooks. About $770,000 is headed to Pinellas County, mostly to programs coordinated by the county health department. The programs aim to make sure men are getting tested for prostate cancer and to increase the immunization rates against various diseases in African-American, Hispanic and Asian neighborhoods. Another initiative, to reduce diabetes among African-Americans, will benefit only the six neighborhoods on the south side of St. Petersburg that Bush has targeted for urban renewal through his "Front Porch Florida" program. About $175,000 will pay for community forums and health fairs where the approximately 10,000 Front Porch area residents can get tested for the disease and for health workers who will take such information door-to-door, said Rodney Bennett, chairman of the Governor's Revitalization Council, which oversees the Front Porch program in St. Petersburg. The grants will be awarded in two stages. The second payment, due in July 2001, will require lawmakers' approval during next year's legislative session. Brooks called the grant awards "recommendations" because the state has not signed final contracts with the recipients. State Rep. Rudy Bradley, R-St. Petersburg, sponsored the original bill to create the grant program. Bradley is vying for the District 21 state Senate seat against Democratic Rep. Les Miller of Tampa. While the law gave state health officials until January 2001 to disburse the grants, they were announced two weeks before the general election. Brooks said the timing was according to lawmakers' wishes. "The Legislature asked us to make sure we got the grants out on the street pretty quickly," he said. About $300,000 in grants were awarded to two Hillsborough County groups, including the Lawton and Rhea Chiles Center for Healthy Mothers and Babies at the University of South Florida. The Chiles Center will use about $170,000 of that amount to educate African-American women about bacterial vaginosis, an infection they contract three times more often than white women, said Estrellita Berry, project director for Central Hillsborough Healthy Start, part of the Chiles Center. The infection is linked to preterm births, Berry said, which themselves are a major factor in infant mortality. By reducing the rate of infection, the project aims to reduce the infant mortality rate in Hillsborough County. In 1999, there were 14.9 deaths per 1,000 live births among African-Americans in Hillsborough, compared with 6.5 deaths per 1,000 live births among whites, Berry said.
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From the Times state desk
From the state wire
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