The Batey Relief Alliance (BRA) will hold its third annual international conference entitled, “HIV/AIDS in Haiti and the Dominican Republic: a bilateral challenge”. Sponsored by Barnard College and the Columbia University International Family AIDS Program, the event will be held at Columbia University, Schapiro Center, Davis Auditorium, 500 West 120th Street (between Broadway and Amsterdam Avenue) in the City of New York. The date is Saturday, April 30th from 10:00 am to 7:30pm. Michele Wucker, Senior Fellow at World Policy Institute will be the moderator.

Admission is FREE. The BRA however welcomes your donations to support its life-saving HIV/AIDS testing/education/prevention program in the bateyes of the Dominican Republic. Please mail your tax-deductible checks payable to Batey Relief Alliance at P.O. Box 300565, Brooklyn, N.Y. 11230. You may also make your secure donations ONLINE.

For DIRECTIONS or to reserve a seat, contact Ulrick Gaillard at (917) 627-5026 or bra@bateyrelief.org.

ABOUT BATEY RELIEF ALLIANCE
A batey, whose name originates from an indigenous Taino word, is a
community of workers who live amid the cane fields of the Dominican
Republic. The bateyes are among the country’s poorest areas; typically
constructed from concrete blocks, many have no electricity or running
water, and access to medical care is limited. Most of their residents are
Haitians and their children, often born in the Dominican Republic.

Established in 1997, the Batey Relief Alliance (BRA) operates as a
not-for-profit, humanitarian aid entity, uniting member grassroots
organizations, government agencies, universities and the international
community in a strategic partnership to help create a productive and
self-sufficient environment for poor marginalized populations in the
Caribbean. Toward this end, BRA Dominicana is actively involved in
addressing the precarious socio-economic situation of thousands of migrant
children, their families and others languishing in the bateyes, urban and
rural slums and the border zones in Haiti and the Dominican Republic by
raising public awareness - facilitating thoughtful dialogues - and
delivering services in primary health care, HIV/AIDS
prevention/education/treatment, child development, improved water and
sanitation, shelter reconstruction, micro-credit projects, legal aid and
education. Visit us at www.bateyrelief.org.

HEALTH CARE POLICY ISSUES AS A RESULT OF THE GENETIC REVOLUTION: IMPLICATIONS FOR PUBLIC HEALTH.

Abstract
The genetic revolution has spawned 4 distinct issues of universal importance to health care policy and society: genetic privacy, regulation and standardization of genetic tests, gene patenting, and education.

Adequate policy advancements for these 4 areas are lacking. Stringent controls must be placed on individual health records to prevent their misuse. Genetic testing within the clinical setting should undergo thorough evaluation before it is implemented. Regulations are needed to prevent the monopolization of DNA sequences.

Society and health care professionals must be educated about the scope of genetic testing because current trends indicate that genetic and molecular assessments are destined to become a routine component of health care.

For a full article reading, please click here, ARTICLE.

Acknowledgments
We thank Ruth L. Eudy and Amy O. Longnecker for technical advice regarding this article.
Human Participant Protection
No protocol approval was needed for this study.

Footnotes
Peer Reviewed
Note. Portions of this article were originally submitted to fulfill partial requirements for a course at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, College of Public Health.

Contributors
R.P. Ojha developed the ideas for this article. The ideas were reviewed and further refined by R. Thertulien. Both authors performed the research required and contributed to writing the article. Accepted for publication February 17, 2004.

Raymond Thertulien, M.D., Ph.D., will be a featured speaker at the upcoming Batey Relief Alliance’s international conference, “HIV/AIDS in the Dominican Republic and Haiti: a bilateral challenge.” For more information about BRA’s humanitarian health care intervention and conference, please visit www.bateyrelief.org.

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POLICY, BIOLOGY, AND HEALTH
Rohit P. Ojha, BA and Raymond Thertulien, MD, PhD
Rohit P. Ojha is with the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, College of Public Health and the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Myeloma Institute for Research and Therapy, Little Rock. Raymond Thertulien is with the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Myeloma Institute for Research and Therapy, Little Rock and the Batey Relief Alliance, Inc, New York, NY, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to providing health care in the Dominican Republic and Haiti.
Correspondence: Requests for reprints should be sent to Rohit P. Ojha, 4301 W. Markham, #776, Little Rock, AR 72205 (e-mail: ojharohitp@uams.edu).

March 2005, Vol 95, No. 3 | American Journal of Public Health 385-388
? 2005 American Public Health Association
DOI: 10.2105/AJPH.2003.026708