The Joy to Life Foundation has committed $200,000 to the Alabama Breast and Cervical Early Detection Program so the program can remain open until June 31, the date new funding is expected for the program’s fiscal year.

Joy to Life founder Joy Blondheim of Montgomery said the entire program would have been forced to shut its doors until July if additional funds had not been provided.

“It was totally unacceptable for us that the women in this state with symptoms were going to have to wait until July to get the necessary screenings they needed,” said Blondheim, who made the announcement during a Friday news conference. this contribution is in addition to the funds Joy to Life contributes yearly to the program, she said.

Blondheim started the nonprofit Joy to Life 10 years ago with her husband, Richard, with the aim of providing free mammograms to medically underserved women younger than 50 in 29 counties in south-central Alabama.

The Alabama Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Program provides qualified women with breast and cervical cancer screening at no cost. Women who are screened and diagnosed through this program and diagnosed with breast and/or cervical cancer may be eligible for treatment through Medicaid.

To be eligible for free screening for breast or cervical cancer through the program, women must be a resident of Alabama, age 40 to 64 or uninsured and at or below 200 percent of the federal poverty level, though some women younger than 40 who have abnormal breast exams and women enrolled in Medicare Part A also could be eligible.

For more information on Joy to Life, go to joytolife.org.

– Teri Greene

Rush University Medical Center is screening visitors for flu symptoms; if you’re clear, you get a sticker like this. (CBS)

CHICAGO (CBS) – The flu is widespread in Illinois, prompting one Chicago hospital to take extra precautions to keep patients and employees free of the virus.

At rush University Medical Center, visitors are asked if they have flulike symptoms.

A negative answer gets you a sticker indicating you are flu-free and can enter the hospital to visit. 

But anyone who admits to having flu-like symptoms or looks like they’re sick is asked to leave.

Rush is screening everyone who walks through its doors because in the last month the hospital has seen a significant increase in the number of patients with the flu. during the month of January, the hospital had anywhere from 11 to 22 patients during any given week.

“Once we start to see patients come into the hospital, that’s usually an indication that they’re more activity in the community,” Rush’s Mary Alice Lavin said. “We don’t want people coming in to visit if they’re sick. They’re potentially then going to infect our staff, our patients.”

Health officials say the activity at rush is mirrored across the state, which is why they’re still advising people to get a flu vaccine.

Renee Melton stopped by the “minute clinic” at CVS Monday afternoon.

“My colleague is at home with a 103 temperature right now, suffering, as well as her partner. it just sounds awful. I don’t want to get the flu,” Melton said.

She is one of 900 people the clinic has vaccinated this year. That’s down from the 1,200 who rushed to get the flu shot last year after the fatalities associated with the H1N1 flu.

Health officials stress that flu shots take a couple of weeks to protect a recipient against any virus.

By ALAN BAVLEYThe Kansas City Star

Ronald Patterson has been providing day care for years, but he doesn’t remember asthma ever being as big a problem among the children as it is now.

At least one in 10 kids at his George Washington Carver Child Development Center have the condition.

So when the Kansas City Health Department offered to assess asthma risks at his center, Patterson was quick to open his doors.

The new health department program is being offered free to child-care facilities and to parents of young children with asthma.

The goal is to minimize the environmental factors — secondhand smoke, mold, dust mites — that can trigger asthma attacks.

The need is great, said Rebecca Steiner, the environmental health specialist who is conducting the program.

About 3,000 children were treated for asthma at hospital emergency rooms in Kansas City last year. more than half were 5 years old or younger.

“The youngest children are the most affected,” Steiner said. “Early treatment can prevent greater problems later.”

Patterson wanted to know why asthma has been increasing among children.

“Is there any reason for that?” he asked. “We didn’t even protect ourselves back then.”

One reason, Steiner said, may be that children are spending more time indoors, where many asthma triggers are concentrated. That’s why the health department is focusing on child-care centers.

Steiner went through a checklist of preventive measures with Patterson. Furnace filters changed regularly? yes. Carpets vacuumed? Daily. Plush toys and bedding washed? At least weekly.

As babies slept, toddlers toddled and older children zoomed by with toy cars and trucks, Steiner went from room to room with a couple of meters taking readings of temperature and humidity and levels of carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide.

High temperatures and humidity create ideal conditions for dust mites. High carbon dioxide levels may indicate that not enough fresh air is getting into a building. People with respiratory conditions like asthma are more susceptible to carbon monoxide poisoning.

The George Washington Carver center passed every test.

The health department asthma program is set to run through next July. a $37,000 grant from the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services is covering the cost with federal stimulus dollars. other health departments in the state also have gotten grants for similar programs.

Steiner hopes to do assessments of about 100 child-care centers. so far, she has found some reluctance to volunteer.

“I think a lot of facilities are worried that this will be regulatory, that we’ll force them to rip out carpet or get a new ventilation system,” Steiner said.

But that’s not the case: she just offers advice.

Steiner also is providing education to parents to help them recognize asthma symptoms in their children and eliminate asthma triggers at home. The service is available to any Kansas City families with children up to age 5 with asthma or older children with asthma who spend time in child care.

Steiner already has been invited back to the Carver center for its monthly parents’ meeting.

“I think it would be valuable especially to younger parents who assume (asthma symptoms) are just a cold,” the center’s director, Taloura Milligan, said. “It’s greater than a cold.”

Getting involved To participate in Kansas City’s asthma program, call 816-513-6362 to schedule an appointment.