Actor Denzel Washington and his wife, Pauletta, will be in Mount Vernon, his hometown, Friday to award two scholarships for research in neuroscience.

The Pauletta and Denzel Washington Family Scholarship in Neuroscience Awards have been given annual since 2004 by the Department of Neurosurgery at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.

The Washingtons said that they wanted to announce the scholarship recipients in a ceremony at Mount Vernon High School ” to help persuade students from Denzel’s hometown to consider careers in the sciences because they offer the potential to change the world,” according to a statement from the hospital.

The scholarship winners — undergraduate, graduate and medical students pursuing training in the field of neuroscience — are given monthly stipends to work during the summer with established scientists.

The scholarships are being awarded this year to a Los Angeles resident who is a graduate students and a Davis, Calif., resident in medical school.

A reunion of Nyack Hospital nurses held earlier this month was such a success that organizers hope to make it an annual get-together. More than 50 retired nurses attended the dinner at a restaurant in Stony Point.

Organizer Kathy Hopkins (email: kathy262@optonline.net) reports that the group tallied up its collective experience and figured out that it represented a total of 1,171 years of service to Nyack Hospital.

The group honored four nurses for having over 50 years of experience.

A new study shows that costs associated with long-term care for the elderly and patients with chronic illnesses have increased 18 percent during the last five years in areas surrounding Manhattan, including Westchester, Rockland and Putnam counties.

The annual cost of long-term care rose to $129,570 in the Lower Hudson Valley, the boroughs of New York City outside Manhattan and the Long Island counties of Suffolk and Nassau, according to a study by Genworth Financial Inc.

The nationwide study found that the cost of such care, provided in nursing homes, assisted living facilities and in the home, rose for the fifth consecutive year.

In Manhattan, the cost of long-term care rose to $145,392, said the Richmond, Va.-based seller of financial products, including insurance.

The last few days have been sunny and picture-perfect. But as the season of working and playing outdoors approaches, so do the warnings about the harm that bright, yellow orb can do to our skin if we don’t take the proper precautions.

Find out how your skin fares at a free skin cancer screening at St. John’s Riverside Hospital in Yonkers on May 3 from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m.

Call 674-9780, ext 302 for more information.

Caring for a loved one is among the most thankless jobs out there. It can be part-time or full-time. It can be caring for a grandfather with Alzheimer’s disease, a child with a spinal cord injury following a diving accident, a wife with Parkinson’s disease, a friend with AIDS, or a mother with cancer.

It means providing daily, hands-on, live-in care for a family member or being responsible for the emotional, financial and/or physical care and well being of another. It can require one to live with the person being cared for, or live separately.

Often, the person being cared for is the primary focus. But who cares for the caregiver?

“When Love is not Enough” is a series of talks for clergy and faith community leaders who assist in the clinical, practical and spiritual needs of not only the ill, but of their caregivers.

On April 30th, the Westchester Center for Rehabilitation & Nursing, 10 Claremont Avenue, in Mount Vernon, will host a conference from 8:30 a.m. to 12 p.m.

The keynote speaker will be the Reverend Barbara Evans, R.N, N.P., M.P.H., M.Div., Minister for Health & Wholeness at Grace Baptist Church in Mount Vernon.

There is no charge for attendance, but seating is by reservation only. RSVPs by April 25th are requested. Clergy wishing to attend or needing additional information should contact Nancy Piotrowski at 914-699-1600×337 or NP.WestRehab@earthlink.net

A national report card by a group that advocates for more organ donation shows a 10 percent increase in registered organ donors over the past 18 months. The total number of registered donors nationwide is now nearly 70 million, according to Donate Life America.
Nationwide, only 35 percent of licensed drivers and ID card holders have registering to be donors through their state registry or motor vehicle department. Visit the group’s Web site for information on registering to be a donor.

Two consumer-advocacy organizations are criticizing a Food and Drug Administration investigation into a generic version of a popular, once-daily dose antidepressant, calling the regulatory agency’s review “inadequate.”

White Plains-based ConsumerLab.com and The People’s Pharmacy, of Durham, N.C., said a determination by FDA that a generic version of Wellbutrin XL 300, manufactured by Impax Laboratories and distributed by Teva Pharmaceuticals, was safe was based on information from a lower dose of the drug.

Calling the FDA’s findings disappointing, ConsumerLab.com and The People’s Lab said there was no evidence that the FDA evaluated the generic drug for safety and effectiveness.

“For the FDA to say that it has reviewed the safety and efficacy of this product is not correct,” said Dr. Tod Cooperman, president of ConsumerLab.com.

“The FDA is misleading the public by publishing a positive review which actually provides no data for the 300 milligram product – the strength about which people are complaining,” said Joe Graedon of The People’s Pharmacy (www.peoplespharmacy.com).

The FDA undertook its investigation after receiving complaints that patients taking the branded product experienced a loss of effectiveness when switched to the generic pill. Further, patients reported new onset or worsening of side effects.

In reporting its findings today, the FDA said the generic version, marketed as Budeprion XL 300 milligrams, was “safe and effective.”

Further, the government said the generic version was equivalent, and therefore interchangeable with, Wellbutrin XL 300.

Rev. Hugh Farrish plants seeds to harvest goodwill.

After learning that Port Chester had no farmers’ market, the Mount Vernon pastor teamed up with the Port Chester/Town of Rye Council of Community Services to tend the fields to bring more than 2,500 low-income families farm-fresh vegetables each week during the growing season.

On Saturdays, the families, mostly Hispanic, leave God’s Green Market at St. Peter’s Church in Port Chester with squash, eggplant, corn, potatoes, cucumbers, cabbage, pole beans and peas.

The Westchester County Board of Health will award Farrish and the church the Distinguished Public Health Service Award today.

“My uncle gave me a tractor in North Carolina and I towed it home,” Farrish said about how he turned his love for gardening into farming. “I do all the plowing myself. This is out of love. Thoughts come. Revelations come. Everything you do is a sermon. The more you give, the more is given to you.”

Not only does it promote healthful eating in communities that have limited access to fresh vegetables, but it has connected volunteers from churches of different denominations and ethnic backgrounds.

Volunteers also travel together in the church van for the 80-minute drive to and from the Goshen farm to cut down on fossil fuel consumption.

More volunteers are needed for this year. Interested residents should call Ann Barringer Spaeth at the Council, 914-939-8055.

On Sunday, 71 people showed up at the JCC Mid-Westchester in Scarsdale to give a sample of blood. Within six weeks, those people will know if they carry any genetic markers that would put them at risk for having children born with any 11 diseases commonly found in people of Eastern European Jewish ancestry.

The people took part in testing sponsored by the Jewish Genetic Disease Consortium, a group of organizations representing families affected by such disorders as Bloom’s syndrome, Canavan disease, cystic fibrosis, Familial dysautonomia , Tay-Sachs disease and others.

Everyone who was tested received genetic counseling. People who are negative for all diseases will receive a letter and a copy of their results. People with positive results will be seen again by a genetic counselor.

The consortium hopes to offer the screening again in the fall somewhere in Northern Westchester.

If you plan to go to Israel for Passover, or for the summer, public health officials urge you to make sure you’ve had your measles shots.

Since September, more than 900 cases of measles have been reported in Israel, with about 700 cases in the cities of Jerusalem and Beit Shemesh, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

There have been several measles cases in our region including one in Rockland and several in New York City.

Measles is a highly contagious respiratory illness spread by contact with an infected person, through coughing and sneezing. Measles virus can also remain active and contagious for up to two hours on infected surfaces. Symptoms include rash, high fever, cough, runny nose, and red, watery eyes.

Some people with measles can also get an ear infection, diarrhea, serious lung infection, or, even more rarely, inflammation of the brain (encephalitis).

CDC recommends that:

• Travelers who plan to go to Israel check their immunization
status and visit their doctor if they are not immune to measles or are
unsure of immunity status.

• Unvaccinated travelers should get vaccinated as early as
possible before leaving for Israel.

• Travelers returning from Israel should see a health care provider if they develop signs or symptoms of measles. Travelers who develop fever and other symptoms of measles while still in Israel should get prompt medical attention before returning to the United States. Contact U.S. consular services at the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv or the U.S. Consulate General in Jerusalem for assistance in locating health care providers.

• Travelers with fever and other symptoms of measles should limit their contact with others as much as possible, to prevent the potential spread of the disease.

• Clinicians seeing a patient with fever and other symptoms of measles should ask about vaccination history and any recent international travel.