PUBLICATIONS
Poole, C., Barker, T. Bradbury, R., Capone, D. Hutson Chatham, A., Handali, S., Rodriguez, E., Qvarnstrom, Y., & Brown, J. (2023). Cross-sectional study of soil-transmitted helminthiases in Black Belt region of Alabama. Emerging Infectious Diseases, 29(12). https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/29/12/23-0751_article
Capone, D., Bakare, T., Barker, T., Hutson Chatham, A., Clark, R., Copperthwaite, L., Flemister, A., Geason, R., Hoos, E., Kim, E., Manoh, A., Pomper, S., Samodal, C., Smith, S., Poole, C., & Brown, L., (2023). Risk factors for enteric pathogen exposure among children in the Black Belt region of Alabama, USA. Emerging Infectious Diseases, 29(12). https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/29/12/23-0780_article
June 13, 2024, Tavis Williams, UAB SANITATION HEALTH PROGRAM RURAL HEALTH LIAISON AMERICORPS VISTA (Sumter County) was highlighted in the Sumter County Record Journal representing the program through community outreach and engagement at Sumter County Day!
FL*SHING INJUSTICE | Southern Exposure (southernexposurefilms.org)
#SUMTERCOUNTY Tavis Williams, UAB SANITATION HEALTH PROGRAM RURAL HEALTH LIAISON AMERICORPS VISTA (Sumter County) representing the program through community outreach and engagement! Tavis is also collecting and donating cases of water to the city of York who recently had a pipe burst. The city has been without water for several days and the students are unable to go to school.
#WILCOXCOUNTY Our program partners ‘H2Alabama’, a local non-profit with funding from the Well Water Trust offers help to residents to install safe water wells to rural households who are unable to connect to municipal water. Courtesy of: Wilcox Progressive Era Newspaper March 1, 2023
Drinking Water From Private Wells and Risks to Children Pediatrics (2023) 151 (2): e2022060645.
Current On-Site Sewage Regulation
ARTICLE: Causes of Groundwater Contamination
Grant Funds Improvements at J. Paul Jones Hospital (Wilcox Co.) December 20, 2022
Multi-Million Dollar Water Project Underway in Wilcox Co. December 16, 2022
‘The president directed us to fix this’: White House pledges to solve Alabama’s Black Belt sewage woes Lowndes and Greene counties are among 11 different sites across seven states to benefit first from new Federal Program (CLINK LINK to READ MORE)
In honor of #AmeriCorpsWeek we are highlighting our Vistas serving on the UAB Sanitation Health Program serving in the Black Belt Region. #WeAreAmeriCorps visit our Facebook page to view these highlights: https://facebook.com/uabsanitationhealthprogram
CBS NEWS 60 MINUTES/ LOWNDES CO BEGINNING AT: 15:17 – 28:40 https://www.cbs.com/shows/60_minutes/video/zAYLCEJxhZm_a9J22TyieOFrTAo_a0vi/12-19-2021-the-beast-america-s-dirty-secret-trevor-noah/
NEW YORK TIMES ARTICLE: As-Infrastructure-Money-Flows-Wastewater-Improvements-Are-Key-The-New-York-Times-1Download
Selma Sun Dallas County part of program to identify, address sickness caused by seeping sewage https://www.selmasun.com/news/dallas-county-part-of-program-to-identify-address-sickness-caused-by-seeping-sewage/article_a065d860-4c90-11ec-a5cc-fb2d3ec1a1aa.html
The West Alabama Watchman Dr. Claudette Poole, assistant professor of pediatrics at UAB, told of the complicated research now being conducted at the request of the CDC….”
WSFA 12 NEWS UAB health study in Lowndes County on inadequate sanitation and infections https://www.wsfa.com/video/2021/04/23/uab-health-study-lowndes-county-inadequate-sanitation-infections/ April 23, 2021
- While it has long been thought that the most direct health effect linked to the sanitation crisis in the Black Belt was due to soil-transmitted hookworm, a study led by UAB found no evidence of transmission.
- Researchers have hired local community health care workers to collect samples from children for testing — and will provide treatment — if it is found that children living in several Alabama Black Belt counties are infected with hookworm, and related intestinal infections.
EVENTS
The West Central Alabama Community Health Improvement League, Inc. and the UAB Center for the Study of Community Health will host the Twentieth Annual Meeting of the Black Belt Institute Thursday, September 28, 2023, WCACHIL
Our team had the great pleasure of being featured this year (see below)
FL*SHING INJUSTICE
Sherry Bradley and Perman Hardy met on an ordinary Friday afternoon. Amid national and international media recognition of the egregious sanitation and health challenges facing counties across the Black Belt, they helped create an extraordinary consortium of community members, academic institutions, nonprofits, and government agencies dedicated to finding practical solutions for wastewater issues throughout the Black Belt in Alabama.
The Black Belt Unincorporated Wastewater Project, UAB Sanitation Health and Equity program and other members of the Alabama Rural Water and Wastewater Management Consortium, are utilizing historic state and federal infrastructure funding to implement real solutions on the ground, transforming communities through education and bringing justice to areas that have long been overlooked and underserved for these basic needs.
UAB Sanitation Health Program Water Equity Symposium
The UAB Sanitation Health Program in collaboration with the Alabama Rural Water and Wastewater Management Consortium with funding provided by the CDC, Lister Hill Center for Health Policy, and the USDA is excited to announce that we are hosting a Water and Wastewater Equity Symposium at the Renaissance Montgomery Hotel & Spa at the Convention Center on Thursday, October 19, 2023, 9am – 4pm. The purpose of this conference is to bring together relevant stakeholders, federal, state, and local agencies, health providers, educators, non-profits, county commissioners, and water board members to focus on education and solutions to the water and wastewater equity crisis of the Alabama Black Belt.
- Residents in rural Alabama maybe at risk for intestinal parasites due to the environment such as hookworm and round worm.
- To encourage testing for Soil Transmitted Helminth (STH) infections, UAB Sanitation Health Program has partnered with/ #VISIT Rural Health Medical Program Inc, John Paul Jones Hospital Clinics, and Selma Pediatrics.
- If you qualify, there is a $50 gift card you can receive from your provider for submitting samples of stool (poop) for testing —— Black Belt Region of Alabama (Wilcox, Perry, Dallas, Marengo, Sumter, and Hale counties.)To diagnose these infections requires testing stool samples and if found can be treated with a safe prescription medicine.
For more information, please contact AmeriCorps Vista Team Member County residents: Kristi Dunning (205) 962-4917 (Wilcox County), Marcy Pettus, (205) 962-5676 (Dallas County), Sally McGee at (205) 725-1659 (Perry County), Tavis Williams (205) 609-8541 (Sumter County.)
