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Folic Acid Campaign Launched
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In the fight to prevent birth defects, sometimes "When?" is very important.
That is the purpose behind the March of Dimes launching of this year's folic acid campaign, which urges women who are of childbearing age to take folic acid BEFORE pregnancy in order to be effective.
According to the National Council on Folic Acid, a partnership of national and state organizations including the March of Dimes, less than one in ten women know that folic acid should be taken prior to conception.
"Even though we have known for nearly a decade that folic acid can help prevent certain birth defects of the brain and spinal cord, today less than a quarter of women are getting enough," said March of Dimes volunteer Barbara Burton, MD, who chairs the Greater Illinois Chapter's Genetics and Your Practice Program.
It is recommended that women take a vitamin pill that contains 400 mcg of folic acid every day, along with a daily diet rich in folic acid such as orange juice, green vegetables and fortified breakfast cereals.
"Our goal is to get more women to take the recommended daily amount of folic acid now...because if you wait until you are pregnant, it may be too late," added March of Dimes volunteer Susana Martinez, RNC, BS, who chairs the Greater Illinois Chapter's Comenzando Bien Program.
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New Executive Director Named to Head Greater Illinois Chapter
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The Greater Illinois Chapter, which covers Illinois and Northwest Indiana, announces the appointment of Gail J.H. Wilson, RN, MS, MPH, as its new Executive Director.
She replaces Edward L. Stark, who has been promoted to Area Director of the March of Dimes Northern Region.
In her role as Executive Director, Ms. Wilson is the staff leader of the second largest chapter in the March of Dimes, overseeing an annual budget of $5.9 million, six divisions, 46 staff and 15,000 volunteers.
She had been involved with the March of Dimes in the volunteer leadership role of chairperson of the chapter's Public Affairs Committee and member of the Greater Chicago Division's Board of Directors.
Prior to her new position, she was Director of the Chicago Healthy Steps Program at Advocate Health Care.
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New Gene for Eye Disease Found
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A gene responsible for retinitis pigmentosa (RP), the most common form of inherited blindness, has been located by a team of researchers funded in part by the March of Dimes.
Jian Zuo, PhD, of St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, TN, a March of Dimes grantee, and colleagues reported in the journal Nature Genetics that they have identified a long-sought gene called RP1 in a special region of chromosome 8. Mutations in this gene cause certain forms of RP.
RP is the general name for a group of degenerative eye diseases that affect about 400,000 Americans and about 1 in 3,500 individuals worldwide. Currently, there is no treatment available. Michael Katz, MD, March of Dimes vice president for research, said identification of the RP1 might help scientists develop a gene-based treatment for the disease.
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New Gene Therapy Initiative Launched
In an effort to spur a breakthrough in the development of vectors (delivery systems) for gene therapy, the March of Dimes Birth Defects Foundation announces one of the largest basic research initiatives in its 61-year history. The initiative to fight serious inherited diseases is compared in importance to the organization's momentous decision in the 1940s to back the development in polio vaccines. Three research grants totaling more than $2 million over a three-year period have been awarded to senior scientists, known as "Franklin D. Roosevelt Investigators," in honor of the founder of the March of Dimes. Funding for the new initiative comes in part from a lead gift from Jennifer and Peter Nauert, residents in the Greater Illinois Chapter area.
Nitric Oxide Saving Lives of Newborns
Clinical trials have found that critically ill newborns unable to breathe properly because of dangerously high blood pressure in their lungs are being saved by an experimental new treatment using nitric oxide, a chemical produced naturally in the body. Studies conducted prior to the trials by two March of Dimes grantees, John P. Kinsella, MD, and Steven H. Abman, MD, of Children's Hospital and the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Colorado, provided important insight into nitric oxide as a safe and effective treatment.
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