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Why do black infants die twice as frequently as white infants? Why do weight-loss programs tend to fail for
dangerously overweight black women? Why do emerging infectious diseases such as AIDS and hepatitis C infect African Americans at rates up to 500 percent higher than the national norm? Scientists must utilize medical research for answers to these questions. Today, research also has become the best route to cutting-edge treatment for
illnesses such as cancer and AIDS.
Because of past abuses, African Americans often harbor understandable fears of joining clinical trials. Today, we cannot afford to shun these lifesaving trials. Current laws now protect American volunteers from dangerous or abusive studies. Unfortunately, however, African Americans often have been left out of lifesaving clinical trials, which typically used white males as the "gold standard" for research. The resulting research vacuum has helped to drive the racial health gap.
But the 1994 Revitalization Act opened medical research to women and ethnic minorities by stipulating that they
must be included in research projects funded by the federal government. The greater inclusion immediately began to close the research gap by making many discoveries that could directly improve the health of African Americans.
Researchers found that a risk factor for Alzheimer's disease was four times as prevalent among blacks. Other studies are researching the genetic factors that may explain the decreased response to the reasons why interferons in the treatment for hepatitis C among African Americans are not effective.
The Minority Health and Health Disparities Research and Education Act , signed into law by President Clinton in November 2000, should escalate such research. |
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