Aimee Copeland speaks in the Hospital: Great Progress

Aimee Copeland - far left. WTVR.comAfter fighting an intense battle with a flesh-eating bacteria, Aimee Copeland spoke for the first time on Sunday after being in the Augusta hospital for over three weeks. To date, Aimee has lost her left leg, right foot, and both hands to the disease she contracted by being injured in a local GA river, but her words welcomed by all her family and friends who have stood by her during this horrible ordeal. Aimee is in good spirits and continues to recover from her injuries.

CHC sends its best to Aimee and her family as they continue to stand with her during her recovery.

For more information, read this article by the Times-Herald on Aimee's condition and visit her father, Andy Copeland's blog, who routinly writes about her progress.

http://www.wyff4.com/news/georgia-news/Andy-Copeland-s-blog-update/-/9695862/13414756/-/1347obvz/-/index.html

New Federal Rule will Limit Care to HIV/AIDS Patients

New rules implemented by the Federal Health Resources and Services Administration will limit the amount of funding to programs that assist and treat patients with HIV and AIDS. The new rules limit the amount of money that these programs can request to cover administrative costs such as rent, utilities, and insurance costs. The money comes in the form of a grant called the Ryan White HIV/AIDS program. The rule has left many program scrambling to acquire extra funds now needed to serve their patients. If the extra funds are not found, services to HIV/AIDS patients will be limited.

For more information, check out the accompanying article by Georgia Health News.

Community Health Center to Partner with the Georgia Lions Lighthouse Foundation - Free Eye Exams and Glasses for the Uninsured

The Community Health Center announces a future partnership with the Georgia Lions Lighthouse Foundation to bring free eye exams, hearing exams and low cost glasses to the uninsured in Cobb, Douglas, Paulding and surrounding counties. 

Uninsured patients who income qualify will get a free eye exam, hearing exam, and glasses at low cost. Volunteer physicians and equipment will be brought in by the Lighthouse Foundation and patients will be seen at the Community Health Center.

CHC is very excited to partner with the Georgia Lions Lighthouse Foundation to further their dream of "providing vision and hearing services through education, detection, prevention and treatment" to Georgia's uninsured. Our first day is planned for the end of Summer 2012. Check back frequently for more information.

Great Prediabetes Program by the YMCA

YMCAAs everyone knows, diabetes is a dangerous chronic disease that can lead to many more serious problems including blindness, limb amputations, and stroke. While there are many programs that help diabetics manage their diabetes, if the disease can be prevented in the first place, patient's quality of life can be greatly increased and health care costs can be decreased. 

The YMCS's Prediabetes Prevention Program aims to do just at. They have developed a program for educating and providing resources to patients with prediabetes to help them prevent the onset of diabetes. The program focuses on developing health eating and exercise habits that are proven to reduce the risk of developing type II diabetes. For adults, age 60 and older, the program was shown to reduce the development of type II diabetes by more than 70%.

CHC Proposed New Travel Clinic to Offer Travel Vaccines

Destinations PointDoes your life revolve around the getting to and from Hartsfield Jackson Airport? Do you cringe when you hear the radio announcer say that security check point wait times are over an hour long? Then you may be one of the millions of Americans who rely on air travel to work and live and there is a good chance that some of your trips take you outside of the United States.

More people are traveling abroad now than ever before. According to the Center for Disease Control, in 2009 US residents made more than 61 million trips with at least one night spent outside the US, "an approximate 5% increase since 10 years previously (2009)." 

With so much travel overseas, access to the necessary travel vaccines and medications is becoming more important. To that end, the Community Health Center is beginning a public inquiry campaign to find out how much demand there are for travel vaccines and if the community would be served by the vaccines being made available here.

We are inviting everyone who is interested in getting the travel vaccines to fill out our Travel Vaccine Survey Form and let us know what your needs are and check out our facebook page to vote for the vaccines you need the most. Thanks for taking part in this endeavor and increasing access to these needed vaccines.