Bush Returns To His Old "Hood," Announces Women's Health Initiative
Wednesday, September 14, 2011 at 4:24PMBy Adrianna McGinley
President George W. Bush returned to Washington on Wednesday where he announced a new initiative aimed at preventing and treating cervical and breast cancer in developing nations.
Together with the Susan G. Komen for the Cure, the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and the Joint United Nations Prgramme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), the George W. Bush Institute announced the “Pink Ribbon Red Ribbon” initiative, which will introduce accessible women’s health care in sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America. The program begins with initial commitments of at least $75 million over five years and comes on the heels of PEPFAR’s success in combating HIV/AIDS in developing nations.
“There’s been a lot of progress made,” Bush said in reference to HIV prevention and treatment, “but there’s still a lot of problems that remain, and one such problem is cervical cancer. Turns out many women who seek AIDS services face the challenge of cervical cancer. It’s not enough to save a woman from AIDS and have her die from cervical cancer, it’s just unacceptable.”
President Bush also addressed those who claim the U.S. is not responsible for disease prevention in other nations.
“We got our own problems here at home, they say. This is isolationism which is dangerous, it’s dangerous because one of the lessons of September the 11th is what happens overseas matters here at home. When there’s hopelessness it affects the security of the United States of America…and there’s nothing more hopeless to a child who loses a mom or dad to AIDS to watch the wealthy nations of the world sit back and do nothing.”
Also speaking at the event were Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Susan G. Komen for the Cure CEO and Founder Nancy Brinker, who also serves as U.N. Goodwill Ambassador for Cancer Control.
“My sister Suzy made me promise I would do everything I could to help women not die of breast cancer, but that promise wasn’t limited to our borders, it was for all women, because where you live shouldn’t determine whether you live,” Brinker said. “We can’t afford to wait, the urgency of this crisis grows by the hour…More than 60 percent of all deaths by cancer occur in low and middle income countries, yet only 5 percent of the global resources are spent in the developing world.”
African leaders and doctors involved with the program were also present at the event and reiterated the urgency and need for this kind of assistance.
New Mammogram Screening Recommendation Sends Wrong Message
Former U.S. Ambassador to Hungary Nancy Brinker said Monday that a recent U.S. Preventative Services Task Force (USPSTF) recommendation that suggests limiting mammogram screenings for women under 50 was issued by “accomplished people,” but is not relevant under current technological capacities.
“We got to focus on what we know,” said Brinker. “And what works is what we know: Early detection, awareness, research and treatment, and yes, screening mammography and self-awareness.”
A breast cancer survivor herself, Brinker, who founded the organization "Susan G. Komen for the Cure" - named after her only sister who died from breast cancer in 1980 at the age of 36 - currently serves as the World Health Organization's Goodwill Ambassador for Cancer Control.
Brinker credited breast cancer screenings for its preemptive uses, but added that last week’s recommendations were “strangely” helpful in that they addressed screening areas that lag.
“We know mammography works, but we also know it’s imperfect,” she said. “We do need better screening technology. This technology that we’re using today, though it’s been improved and regenerated, is still almost 50-years-old. What other business or field that we know in the United States, or around the world, would use 50-year-old technology?”
Proponents of the USPSTF recommendations released last Monday, say that if followed, the suggestions would save time, money and personal health “scares.” Due to the timing of its release, the study has also been linked to the larger debate on health care reform.
Speaking on ABC's "This Week" on Sunday, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Shultz (D-Fla.) accused the GOP of politicizing the USPSTF’s recommendation by portraying it as an example of government-provided health care rationing.
Brinker said the Komen organization’s role in health care reform is participatory and that they are working to “improve screening coverage, [ban] insurance discrimination for people with pre-existing conditions, [lower] out-of-pocket expenses, and [provide] patient navigator services.”
When asked about how patients might deal with insurance providers who would potentially deny mammograms, Brinker said the organization has “ways to explain people’s cases and to make sure that we protect people.”