Title: Why 7 Deadly Diseases Strike Blacks Most
Headings: Why 7 Deadly Diseases Strike Blacks Most
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Why 7 Deadly Diseases Strike Blacks Most
Health care disparities heighten disease differences between African-Americans and white Americans.

Content: It means overcoming disparities in health care. It means investments targeted to the health of black Americans. And the evidence so far indicates that these investments will pay health dividends not just for racial minorities, but for everyone. Yet we're closer to the beginning of the fight than to the end. Some numbers: Diabetes is 60% more common in black Americans than in white Americans. Blacks are up to 2.5 times more likely to suffer a limb amputation and up to 5.6 times more likely to suffer kidney disease than other people with diabetes. African-Americans are three times more likely to die of asthma than white Americans. Deaths from lung scarring -- sarcoidosis -- are 16 times more common among blacks than among whites. The disease recently killed former NFL star Reggie White at age 43.