Latest news with #Cermak
Yahoo
21-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
‘Astonishing': HIV screening policy change normalizes getting tested, experts say
AUSTIN (KXAN)– An HIV screening opt-out policy suggested by Central Health, a Travis County Hospital District, helped break the barriers that stemmed from HIV testing– and the numbers were astonishing. Central Health Senior Director Megan Cermak told KXAN's Tom Miller, that the campaign helps their patients not 'slip through the cracks' because some Illnesses and conditions were not being properly detected until it was too late. In 2018, the Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS) identified Central Texas as a 'hot spot' for new HIV diagnoses, Cermak said. A policy change in HIV screenings, however, made a difference to save lives. Back in the day a positive HIV diagnosis felt like it was the end of the world- especially during the AIDS epidemic in 1995. However, a press release from Central Health stated in 2025, that fear has been shifted due to the accessibility and lifesaving treatment options made available for patients. 'Today, a person with HIV can manage the condition properly with the right care,' said the release. Although the fear over HIV diagnosis has slightly simmered, life-threatening gaps still continue to exist and a big part of the problem is due to screening. Central Health's implement in policy changes for HIV screening made efforts to raise awareness and increase testing. The health center created a policy that included HIV testing as part of any blood screenings; mandating HIV screening on blood tests unless patients opted out. For more than 30 years the CommUnity Care's David Powell Health Center has provided HIV treatment and prevention for all Central Texans, including Travis County, the release said. Cermak shared with KXAN the impacts Central Health leads through its HIV screening policy and how it combated the stigma around it. 'The HIV screening policy, it's exactly what it sounds, so we make HIV screening a routine part of healthcare. So in your annual exam when you get a blood draw and you're screened for diabetes or cholesterol, you're also screened for HIV,' Cermak said. Cermak added that this helps patients reduce the stigma around HIV screening because it becomes a routine part of healthcare. 'Patients and the providers have responded so positively because it helps reduce stigma, and it makes what could have been an uncomfortable conversation a normal part of healthcare,' Cermak said. Cermak told KXAN the outcome from this policy change to implement HIV screenings as part of the routine exams was 'astonishing.' 'HIV screening rates for our Medical Access Program (MAP) patients in Travis County were 64 percent higher than the state average and 84 percent greater than the national average,' Cermak said. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
15-02-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Today in Chicago History: ‘I'm glad it was me instead of you.' Mayor Anton Cermak shot.
Here's a look back at what happened in the Chicago area on Feb. 15, according to the Tribune's archives. Is an important event missing from this date? Email us. Weather records (from the National Weather Service, Chicago) High temperature: 69 degrees (1954) Low temperature: Minus 9 degrees (1905) Precipitation: 0.78 inches (1954) Snowfall: 6.1 inches (2021) Vintage Chicago Tribune: 4 Illinois athletes who won GOLD at the Winter Olympics 1932: Chicago-raised Billy Fiske piloted the U.S. men to their second Olympic gold medal in bobsled during Winter Games in Lake Placid, New York. Fiske lived a brief but extraordinary life. Born into a wealthy banking family in Chicago in 1911 — that could trace its roots to the Mayflower — he was educated overseas during his teen years. That's where he was chosen — at age 16 — as the driver for the United States' five-man bobsled team in the 1928 Olympic games in St. Moritz, Switzerland. The team won gold. 1933: Chicago Mayor Anton Cermak was struck by an assassin's bullet presumably intended for President-elect Franklin D. Roosevelt in Miami; he died March 6. Once at the hospital, Cermak reportedly uttered the line that is engraved on his tomb. Speaking to FDR, Cermak allegedly said: 'I'm glad it was me instead of you.' The Tribune reported the quote without attributing it to a witness, and most scholars doubt it was ever said. 1964: Chicago Cubs star second baseman Ken Hubbs was killed when the small plane he piloted crashed soon after takeoff from Provo, Utah. Dennis Doyle, a friend of the former MLB rookie of the year, also died in the crash. 1990: Space chicken' donated to Lincoln Park Zoo. Out of 67 billion chicken eggs laid in the United States the year before, 32 were sent into orbit aboard the space shuttle Discovery. One of the surviving embryonic space travelers — by then a 7-pound, 10-month-old white hen named 'Discovery' — was donated by Purdue University to the poultry barn at Lincoln Park's Farm-in-the-Zoo. 2023: The Chicago Bears purchased the former Arlington Park site. Chicago Bears and Soldier Field: What to know about the possible stadium move — or transformation Subscribe to the free Vintage Chicago Tribune newsletter, join our Chicagoland history Facebook group, stay current with Today in Chicago History and follow us on Instagram for more from Chicago's past. Have an idea for Vintage Chicago Tribune? Share it with Kori Rumore and Marianne Mather at krumore@ and mmather@
Chicago Tribune
15-02-2025
- Sport
- Chicago Tribune
Today in Chicago History: ‘I'm glad it was me instead of you.' Mayor Anton Cermak shot.
Here's a look back at what happened in the Chicago area on Feb. 15, according to the Tribune's archives. Is an important event missing from this date? Email us. Weather records (from the National Weather Service, Chicago) Vintage Chicago Tribune: 4 Illinois athletes who won GOLD at the Winter Olympics 1932: Chicago-raised Billy Fiske piloted the U.S. men to their second Olympic gold medal in bobsled during Winter Games in Lake Placid, New York. Fiske lived a brief but extraordinary life. Born into a wealthy banking family in Chicago in 1911 — that could trace its roots to the Mayflower — he was educated overseas during his teen years. That's where he was chosen — at age 16 — as the driver for the United States' five-man bobsled team in the 1928 Olympic games in St. Moritz, Switzerland. The team won gold. 1933: Chicago Mayor Anton Cermak was struck by an assassin's bullet presumably intended for President-elect Franklin D. Roosevelt in Miami; he died March 6. Once at the hospital, Cermak reportedly uttered the line that is engraved on his tomb. Speaking to FDR, Cermak allegedly said: 'I'm glad it was me instead of you.' The Tribune reported the quote without attributing it to a witness, and most scholars doubt it was ever said. 1964: Chicago Cubs star second baseman Ken Hubbs was killed when the small plane he piloted crashed soon after takeoff from Provo, Utah. Dennis Doyle, a friend of the former MLB rookie of the year, also died in the crash. 1990: ' Space chicken' donated to Lincoln Park Zoo. Out of 67 billion chicken eggs laid in the United States the year before, 32 were sent into orbit aboard the space shuttle Discovery. One of the surviving embryonic space travelers — by then a 7-pound, 10-month-old white hen named 'Discovery' — was donated by Purdue University to the poultry barn at Lincoln Park's Farm-in-the-Zoo. 2023: The Chicago Bears purchased the former Arlington Park site. Want more vintage Chicago?
