Script Your Future Health Fair Brings Awareness to Sickle Cell Disease

CINCINNATI - March 6, 2014 - PRLog -- CINCINNATI – Last month’s unexpected winter storm may have postponed a health fair planned by Script Your Future and the Ohio Valley Sickle Cell Network, but it didn’t put a chill on their commitment to be a forum of health resources targeting the sickle-cell disease community.

The “Celebrate Your Health, Celebrate Your Future” health fair, originally scheduled for Feb. 15, will be held on Saturday, March 15, 1 – 4 p.m. at the Hampton Inn and Suites, 3024 Vine Street in Corryville. The event will feature free blood pressure and diabetes screenings, information on community health resources, entertainment, refreshments, guest speakers and door prizes. Invited speakers include Ohio State Senator Eric H. Kearney. Confirmed vendors are:YMCA Diabetes Prevention program; UC Health; UC Open School, Urban League, IV Charis; Oak Pavilion; Crossroads Hospice; Mullaneys and Be the Match Bone Marrow program. Certified assisters will also be available to help attendees to learn and sign up for health insurance at www.healthcare.gov.

The Ohio Valley Sickle Cell Network is a project of the University of Cincinnati, General Internal Medicine. Sickle cell (http://www.sicklecelldisease.org/index.cfm?page=research-...) disease is an inherited blood disorder that affects red blood cells. The red blood cells become sickle-shaped (crescent shaped) and have difficulty passing through small blood vessels. It is most common in West and Central Africa, but about 100,000 individuals in the United States have sickle cell disease and 3 million have the sickle cell trait. According to the Sickle Cell Disease Association of America, the trait appears in 1 in 12 African Americans. Sickle cell is most common in people with ancestry from Africa, South or Central America, the Caribbean islands, India, Saudi Arabia and Mediterranean countries.

Script Your Future is national campaign designed to help patients take back their futures by helping them understand the importance of taking their medicine as directed (http://scriptyourfuture.org/about/?page_id=37) – and following through with it. Cincinnati was one of six cities selected to launch the campaign in 2011.

According to Script Your Future:

§         3 out of 4 Americans report that they do not always take their medication as directed;

§         Non-adherence adds $290 billion in avoidable costs to the health-care system annually;

§         Causes nearly 125,000 U.S. deaths each year;

§         Is responsible for one-third of medicine-related hospitalizations.

For more information on the Ohio Valley Sickle Cell Network, call 558-7517; for more information on Script Your Future, call 513-206-0476.