Rig Rush is frustrated. The global marketing director with Impulse Group — an organization providing HIV/AIDS education for gay men — says it has been hard to watch state and federal health departments respond to the worldwide monkeypox outbreak. Like COVID-19, the vaccine and testing rollout in Georgia has been slow. And there’s concern that […]
Health
Posted inHealth
Where to Get Tested and Vaccinated for Monkeypox in Metro Atlanta
The worldwide monkeypox outbreak continues to spread across the country, and Georgia ranks fifth in total cases. The latest tally from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was just over 1,000 cases in the state. In metro Atlanta — which represents a majority of the state’s cases — testing and vaccines for monkeypox […]
Posted inHealth
Monkeypox and Its Effects: One Man’s Journey
Angelo Perry says he wants to get back to his regular life. He misses his friends, family and having time to build roller skates speckled with glitter. Perry’s world changed on July 22 when he was diagnosed with monkeypox. More than 80% of cases in Georgia where racial data is available have affected Black men […]
Posted inHealth, Reproductive Health
City of Atlanta Giving $300,000 to Abortion Fund
In further defiance of the state’s decision to ban abortion after six weeks, the Atlanta City Council approved funding to support a reproductive rights organization. In mid-May, in the wake of the leaked U.S. Supreme Court opinion to overturn Roe v. Wade, the Amplify Georgia Collaborative — which includes SisterSong, the Feminist Women’s Health Center, […]
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Black Men Make Up Over 80% of Monkeypox Cases in Georgia
The overwhelming majority of monkeypox cases in Georgia have been made up of Black men, according to the state’s public health department. Nancy Nydam, spokesperson for the Georgia Department of Public Health, confirmed to Capital B Atlanta that 82% of the more than 500 monkeypox cases are Black men. “The percentage speaks for itself,” Nydam […]
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The Local Fight to Increase Fibroid Research Funding
Tanika Valbrun founded the White Dress Project, an Atlanta-based uterine fibroid advocacy organization, in 2015 after undergoing two surgical procedures to remove 27 fibroids. Today, local, Black-women-led organizations like the White Dress Project and Black Women’s Health Imperative (now headquartered in Washington, D.C.) are working to increase compassionate fibroid health care and pushing for better […]
Posted inHealth, Reproductive Health
With Georgia’s Six-Week Abortion Ban, Black Women Face Dire Consequences
Georgia is now home to one of the nation’s most restrictive abortion laws, after a federal appeals court ruled on Wednesday to allow the state’s six-week abortion ban to take effect. The state law follows the Supreme Court’s recent reversal of Roe v. Wade, the court case that had guaranteed the constitutional right to an […]
Posted inCOVID-19, Health
What We Know About the Latest COVID-19 Spike in Georgia
Nearly three years into the pandemic, we’re still seeing new variants emerge. Recently, a new subvariant of Omicron, BA.5, has led to a spike in COVID-19 cases in metro Atlanta. The Omicron subvariant is even more transmissible than its predecessors. “It is a nightmare in its transmissibility, but it doesn’t seem to be more deadly […]
Posted inHealth, Reproductive Health
The Push Behind an Abortion Fund for Atlanta
A collective of reproductive and voting rights groups is calling on the city of Atlanta to create an abortion fund. Their push might’ve just led to change. In partnership with Access for Reproductive Care-Southeast, the Amplify Georgia Collaborative — which includes SisterSong, the Feminist Women’s Health Center, and New Georgia Project — created a petition […]
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CDC Boosts Monkeypox Testing With Cases on the Rise
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is boosting efforts to offer monkeypox testing. On Wednesday, the CDC announced a partnership with Labcorp to address an increase in cases locally and nationwide. Labcorp, one of the largest clinical laboratory testing networks in the country, is aiming to administer 10,000 orthopoxvirus tests per week. The […]