Transcripts For CSPAN Discussion Focuses On Womens Health An

CSPAN Discussion Focuses On Womens Health And The Zika Virus August 7, 2016

Speaking from my new, almost seven months perch as a federal official, i want to share that as a physician and Public Health practitioner, im speaking to you from both of those heads knowing my words are those of a person will always be herself as a doctor first. People who only know me as someone who works in government asked me, have you ever been a real doctor . I assure you, from the way in which i approach my work, that i still am. So know that i mean it and understand when i say i really appreciate this meeting and your work because what you do is so much closer to the people, the community, and the patients than i am at this point in my career. For the administration, so much of the work and progress of the past several years has been rooted in the belief passed down from generation to generation that we can continue to strive toward equity. And that we can Work Together to level the Playing Field for all americans. That we can give all of our sons and daughters, our families, the opportunity to grow and thrive and succeed. Its at the heart of that. The progress is at the foundation of our countrys values. We know that health is the bedrock that forms the foundation. You dont have to look far to see the results of that incredible work of the past several years, which now includes having more than 20 million more americans who for the first time have access to coverage that they need for themselves and families. Work that has led to a more than 50 decline in the uninsured rate for African Americans and a 27 decline for latinos. Today, women can no longer be denied coverage for a preexisting condition like childbirth. But we also know there is a lot more we have to do. And even more sometimes when we think about africanamerican and latino neighbors who are less likely to have access to Health Coverage and access to care. Zika challenges us to mobilize around that reality. While women do have improved access, we still have work to do for Womens Health knowing that Womens Health is far more than Reproductive Health but that we cant separate the two. Progress on Womens Health is a comprehensive approach focusing on health and wellbeing for all women. Daughters, sisters, mothers and grandmothers. Two months ago at the white house United States of women summit, women from all walks of life came together. They said by working today, we can change tomorrow. I was fortunate to moderate a panel on unplanned pregnancy. In that conversation, there were many reminders that i wanted to share briefly for today. Because in that conversation about unplanned pregnancy, we had to remember that what we convey to women, and sometimes i say women and teens because i dont want us to think about one population we are addressing. We want to convey things in a way that really addresses the needs, desires an understanding of the people that we serve. That conversation we had was informed by panelists from new york city and sierra leone among others. The diversity with which we need to approach that work to achieve equity is key. I have been able to observe in the work we have been doing on zika what that means to address maternal and Reproductive Health with equity in mind and because of the work i have done in puerto rico, to understand that when you are addressing these issues for populations in which the Economic Conditions can far outweigh the concerns about a disease for which four out of five people infected have no symptoms, the conversation that require true information and informed decisionmaking for an individual are needing to be informed by the insights that everyone at the panel here today will share. I want to stress that because one of the things i understand working at the federal level is that with all of our expertise and science and policy guidance, thats what it is. Its work that we do on behalf of populations. What has to happen with that work is it has to be translated to be useful for the individual people who need to be able to make personal decisions for themselves. In this case, around Reproductive Health. And i know as a physician how much that relies on shared Decision Making conversations with clinicians who understand, who have the information required to be able to help women make those decisions. Some of the work we have done at hhs in response to zika have been investing more than 300,000 in emergency funding to our title 10 programs in puerto rico to expand access to contraception. We have been doing training. This is to ensure that our work with partners is culturally and linguistically appropriate. And to ensure that our services really reach those in need them most. At the office of Population Affairs last month released a toolkit for providers for counseling women. We are also working with states, territories, tribes and local governments on steps they can take to prevent and respond to zika. Alongside that health care work, we are sharing advice on the best ways to control mosquitoes, working to improve diagnostic capacity and to keep the blood supply free of zika. We already mentioned Vaccine Development and improving diagnostic testing. And underneath all of that, what might be most important is the hard work that is done every day to improve our communications, an especially important technical and human skill for Everything Else that needs to be done to equitably ensure access and enable women to make the decisions they need for themselves. We are working with a number of partners to improve womens access to effective contraception. As we do all of this, i also understand the limitations of our reach on the federal level which is why its so important , for us to continue to partner with you. And to take your feedback so that we can continue to be better at our efforts. But we do need to work with you to spread the word about zika, how its transmitted, how pregnant women, women of childbearing age and actually everyone can protect themselves. And we need ongoing advocacy for our communities for us to have the resources that we need to implement not just mosquito prevention efforts and contraception efforts, but sustainable improvements in conditions which, in addition to helping us address zika in the long run when we talk about disparities and equity, can make many more kinds of differences in the lives of people along the way. Thank you for your work. Thank you to the panelists for what you do and i look forward to our ongoing partnership. [applause] ms. Taylor thanks to both of you for setting the stage for this important conversation. Im jamila taylor, a senior fellow at the center for american progress. I will be moderating the Panel Discussion portion of todays program. We have an Impressive Group of Womens Health experts here on the panel today. I will introduce them briefly but also encourage you to access their full bios online. First, in the beautiful red dress, we had Annemarie Bonita has the senior director for , Government Relations at the National Latina institute for Reproductive Health. In that role she is responsible for the organizations washington, d. C. Office and oversees all Government Relations and policy advocacy work. Prior to joining the latina institute, she worked as Public Policy director for planned parenthood affiliates in california. Next we have Claire Coleman in her seventh year as president and ceo of the Family Planning and Reproductive Health association. Before joining, she served as president and ceo of planned plan parenthood mid Hudson Valley in new york. She has held a number of positions in the United States house of representatives including chief of staff and , legislative director for Appropriations Committee Ranking Member nita lowey. At the end we have dr. Christopher zahn. Hn is Vice President of practice activities for acog. A retired air force officer, and member of acogs armed forces district, he received his medical degree from Uniformed Services university and is a specialist in comprehensive obstetrics and gynecology and has been practicing for 29 years. Before joining acag he served as a physician and the department of obstetrics and gynecology and pathology at Walter Reed National military medical center. Last but not least, we have latonya mapp fret. She joins planned Parenthood Federation of america in 2011. She is the executive director of planned parenthood global and Vice President global. In this role, she sets the course for the International Engagement on all International Issues and, prior to joining planned parenthood, she worked for the United Nations childrens fund, as well as the u. S. Agency for international development. Thank you all again for being here. The first question i have this afternoon is directed to all of you. I wanted you all to describe how your organizations are working zika amongst women. Lets start with claire. Thank you. The national Family Planning and Reproductive Health association is a Membership Association in all 50 states and several territories and the district of columbia. We represent nearly 800 institutional providers of Family Planning and Sexual Health care nationwide so that includes 33 state governments, 15 of the nations federally qualified Health Centers and 80 of planned parenthood affiliates as well as many other private , notforprofit providers of Family Planning. We are working on zika response from two approaches. The first is in Service Delivery. The federal advisories around how we should address peoples concerned, women and men in Health Services has led to concern and confusion in the field about how to translate guidance which has moved as new information has come to light to individual patients who come in with concerns. We actually have a team in texas today meeting with title 10 Family Planning grantee and their Service Delivery network to talk about how to translate the guidance of coming from the feds and local Health Department into practice. How do you operationalize preparedness and what do providers in local communities need to know today in order to be appropriately responsive to the field . We also work in advocacy and communications raising the voice and concerns of this network. We have about 4100 Health Center sites around the country in governmental units, private notforprofit units which are working to interpret this guidance, operationalize it for the community, do Community Awareness and make sure they have supplies on hand. Its important for us to participate in the Coalition Efforts to call attention both from the administration and the congress to the pressing need for resources. Jamila anne marie . The National Institute for Reproductive Health and justice, it is the only Latina National organization that represent 28 million latinas and their families. We do it through reproductive justice lens. What we do is twofold. A lot of what we are doing is we have Community Mobilization that works in teams in new york and florida, in texas and virginia which also happens to be the hotspots where zika is taking place. A lot of our work right now is working with the community and trying to answer questions and trying to hear what their concerns are and what their needs are. Then relaying that backup to d. C. , which of the second part of our work which is the advocacy and lifting those concerns and addressing them and putting pressure on congress, for example, to move forward with emergency funds. Jamila thank you. Its a pleasure to be here and thank you for having this conversation right now. Conversation. Its important for us at planned parenthood because we have the privilege of serving one out of five women in this country and over one Million People per year in latin america and africa. For us, its incredibly important to keep women at the center of this debate around zika. On a normal day, women who are marginalized and sit in parts of the country, whether its geographic or parts of the world where they are not receiving services, they have unmet needs for Family Planning we are trying to address. On a normal day, in latin america in particular, the rate of unsafe abortion is startling. We were talking earlier this week with our colleagues in the government about the average 15yearold in latin americas initial sexual entrance was through violence or rape. These are women who when we, when i later start saying why dont we just wait to get pregnant while we figure out how to handle zika. They cant do that. Its very important that women remain at the center and we take the caution from who and cdc that Reproductive Health has to be a huge part of the response. That is where our work centers. Zahn thanks dr. Very much for the opportunity to be here. Acah is slightly over 50,000 members of obstetrics and gynecology and this area is of special interest to us. This is the first time, its a unique time, it is the first time in history when there is a mosquitoborne illness whose primary impact his birth defect. Never before seen. Its an incredible time to be involved in Womens Health care. Our major goal is primarily clinical. Were in daily, both day and night contact with the cdc. , we work very closely with them. And spreadmplement the message and information the cdc develops. Im sure everyone is aware of these guidelines and they can quite frequently. We have updated our guidelines probably six times in the last couple of months. In fact the most recent one came , out last night to advise and also not surprisingly, when there was Little Information known in the beginning, the guidelines were relatively brief. Now there is more known, but clearly we know far less and the guidelines are much more expanded. And therefore challenging to understand and implement. Isng back to the operation the implementation these is translating those guidelines into practice in the trenches. A patient shows up who has been exposed or traveled somewhere in what to do and how to get the testing done and how to interpret the testing and advise what her risks are, what the prognosis is as best we can and how to further manage the pregnancy. We work very closely with the other Womens Health care organizations, nurse practitioners, midwives, Family Practice to anyone involved in Womens Health to try to get this message out as much as possible. And also we are involved in advocacy, not only for the funding issue but also access to health care and reproductive rights, etc. Clearly there are two populations. The women who are pregnant or planning to and their aspects and clearly there is avoiding the pregnancy. And to paraphrase dr. Freeden said we dont know how to prevent zika but we do know how to prevent pregnancy. We need to make an effort to do that. Jamila thank you. Can you walk us through the standards of care in a zika related case for to attritions that obstetricians for pregnant women particularly . Dr. Zahn i should have made more copies but i have our most recent practice advisory. Generally for women, it varies based on whether the person lives in an endemic area versus has traveled or been exposed. Unfortunately, as of the last week to a week and a half, we now have an endemic area on the mainland. But for people with the majority at this point, there will be those people who travel to an infected area. There are guidelines as to who should be tested and what type of testing should be done. It has gotten a little bit easier with the most recent guideline. There is a division between whether they have been exposed within the first two weeks or it has been after two weeks but before 12. Again there are guidelines as , far as what type of testing should be done in the early exposure. Its a combination of molecular tests called pcr done on both the blood and the urine specimen and, depending on the result of that, a follow on test looking for antibodies is done. They sort of flip in people exposed beyond two weeks. He towing between 2 and 12 weeks. If the woman test negative and she is asymptomatic,

© 2025 Vimarsana