A family practitioner from rural Alabama accepted 300 million new patients last October when President Barack Obama appointed her to become the nation’s top promoter of public health.
Six months into her term, Dr. Benjamin spoke to The St. Louis American last week about her public health priorities as she watched millions of gallons of spilled oil slip toward Bayou La Batre, Alabama, where she founded the Bayou La Batre Rural Health Clinic.
“We’re kind of bracing for that,” Benjamin said. “Our whole industry is seafood – oysters, shrimp, fish – and so the economy is going to be devastated.”
The town is a diverse and very poor fishing community of 2,500 residents located about 25 miles southwest of Mobile. Many of its residents do not have health insurance, though more will be covered under the new health insurance reform law.
A national council will be chaired by Benjamin as a result of the legislation. “This entire government is looking at how to make prevention a priority,” Benjamin said.
The National Prevention, Health Promotion and Public Health Council will be made up of departmental secretaries with a focus on developing a national prevention strategy. It is tasked to make recommendations to improve federal health care practices, with funds to expand prevention and public health programs.
For example, Benjamin is working with the U.S. Department of Education to get physical education and recess back into all schools.
At home, Benjamin explained, neighborhoods need to be safe.
“In order for the kids to play outside and fly their kites and ride their bikes, they need safe places,” she said.
“You don’t want to go to a park that’s full of drug paraphernalia; you want to go to a safe place.”
Benjamin is also working with First Lady Michelle Obama on the Let’s Move campaign to reduce childhood obesity.
“I want to change that national conversation about obesity from being one about illness and obesity to a positive conversation about being healthy and being fit,” said Benjamin.
She added that “healthy” is an active set of behaviors, not an apparel size.
“You can be healthy and you can be fit no matter what size you are. You can exercise; you can eat better and you can become healthier,” Benjamin said.
Starting much earlier in life, greater nutritional health efforts for babies involve encouraging more mothers to breastfeed.
“Studies show that if a mother exclusively breastfeeds for the first six months of life, the child has a very low chance of being obese,” Benjamin said.
“We want to encourage breastfeeding for that reason and also because it’s healthier; you get all of the mother’s antibodies. So we ask the hospitals and particularly the worksites to make it easy for mothers to breastfeed.”
H1N1, HIV and Hep C
Benjamin spoke of the importance of getting the H1N1 flu shot, if you haven’t already; and the priority of preventing, testing and reducing the numbers of sexually-transmitted diseases.
She said the number of people who have Hepatitis C and don’t know it is “staggering.” It’s a sexually transmitted disease that can also be contracted through IV drug use. She said Hepatitis C often goes unnoticed until there is liver failure.
“So we need to get people aware that they need to get tested for Hepatitis C,” Benjamin said.
She also remains alarmed that HIV and AIDS are claiming more African-American women and girls.
“Many people tend to think that because we have the drugs to treat HIV now, they don’t realize that people are still dying from it,” Benjamin said.
“They are contracting HIV and they are still getting very ill, and sometimes the drugs don’t work and people are dying.”
