Soror Kelly Price - Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Inc.

18You’re the Key toour Health(and more)Running households, companies,organizations and countries; servingas breadwinners, nurturers,confidants, and lovers. As if sistasdidn’t have enough responsibilities,unfortunately, there is more.African-American men, yourgrandfathers, fathers, husbands,grandsons, sons, brothers, cousins,uncles, nephews, beaus, friendsand all other males in between, aredesperately in need of your help,quite frankly in saving our lives.It is now common knowledgethat African-American males arethe least healthy of all groups.With the rise of prostate cancer,hypertension and cardiovasculardiseases, HIV/AIDS and obesity,we are threatened with healthrelatedissues even more. Yet,with all of this, African-Americanmen still are the least likely of allhumans to visit a physician. Aseducated women, you are wellfamiliar with some of the reasoning:the distrust based on some ofearly experiments, the undeniablemachismo associated with blackmales, the high level of uninsureds,you’ve heard them all. Thefact remains, however, that we aredying in record numbers from illnessesand diseases that are preventable,treatable, and, in manycases, curable. Some would thinkthat this phenomenon is limitedto undereducated and underprivilegedBrothers; that is simply nottrue. The mystery as to why BlackMen do not seek routine medicaltreatment runs across all ages, allincomes, and all education levels.In 2000, Kappa decided to makeprostate cancer education its tophealth issue. After a chance meetingwith famed actor and humanitarian,Harry Belafonte, himselfa prostate cancer survivor, thefraternity was prepared to committhe resources necessary to make ameaningful difference in this area.The facts were overwhelming:• It is the second leading causeof death among African-American men; approximately6,100 were expected to diefrom it in that year alone.• African-American men havethe highest incidence of prostatecancer in the world.• African-American men diefrom it at a rate of almost 3times that of Caucasian men.Yet, the most alarming fact was,with annual examinations andearly detection, the dreaded diseasewas almost 100% curable.That is, if we had routine physicals.The sad fact is, by the time itis detected, it is usually too late.