From Support Connection in Yorktown:

It’s not too late to join the thousands of local residents who will be at FDR State Park in Yorktown Heights this Sunday, October 4th (rain or shine) for Support Connection’s 15th Annual Support-A-Walk. The annual walkathon is held by Support Connection, Inc., a not-for-profit organization offering free, confidential support services to people affected by breast and ovarian cancer.

The Support-A-Walk was founded fifteen years ago by local residents as a way to increase awareness about breast and ovarian cancer. Last year, MORE THAN 5,000 people participated in this INSPIRING, uplifting community event. Participants complete a 3-mile walk, often in honor of loved ones – a celebration of life and a tribute to those who are affected by breast and ovarian cancer. Families, friends, co-workers and teams of walkers are invited to walk together. Individuals are also welcome to participate.

Leading the way for this year’s “Not For Women Only” campaign will be Honorary Chairperson Matt Sampson of News 12 Westchester. Also on hand will be Master of Ceremonies Kacey Morabito of 100.7 WHUD Radio’s “Mike and Kacey in the Morning.”

At 9:00 a.m. there will be pre-walk activities and entertainment including music and face painting for the children, and gathering time for teams of walkers. Welcoming remarks are at 9:15. At 9:30 there will be warm-up and stretching to music led by staff from Club Fit. At 10:00 a.m. the ribbon will be cut and the Walk will begin. Afterwards there will be free refreshments, music and the Support-A-Walk raffle drawing. Throughout the morning there will be awareness jewelry, greeting cards, books and other merchandise available, as well as information about Support Connection’s free breast and ovarian cancer support groups, programs and services.

For information, to pre-register or donate, call 914-962-6402 or visit www.supportconnection.org. For those unable to pre-register, in-person registration will be available at 9:00 a.m. at the Walk.

Healthcare reform will take a musical turn at a rally Sunday in Nyack.

Folk singer Pete Seeger wil perform at the “Health Care For All” rally at Memorial Park. The free event, which runs from 4:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m., advocates for universal health care and progressive health care reform. Health Care for All Now is the grassroots group which organized the rally, which is co-sponsored by the Fellowship of Reconciliation, Rockland Progressive Dems, Nyack NAACP, WESPAC Foundation and Organizing for America.

Seeger will be joined by Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter Tom Chapin in performing at the park’s gazebo. Also scheduled to perform are New York City blues rocker Emory Joseph and The Roues Brothers, a local band. For more information, call 845-512-3261 or click here.

People with tattoos are now eligible to donate blood. Community Blood Services, which provides  blood to more than 30 hospitals in New York and New Jersey, has reversed a policy that required donors to wait a year after getting a tattoo before donating blood.

Such donors can donate immediately after getting a tattoo as long as it was done at a licensed facility under sterile conditions.

Anyone who has been tattooed during the past year can  call the blood center at 845-220-2030  to schedule appointments.

The state’s top doctor had a message this week for his fellow health-care professionals: Get a flu shot!

“As health care workers, we share one of the proudest traditions of all professions: we put our patients’ interests ahead of our own,” state Health Commissioner Richard F. Daines, M.D. said in an open letter this week.

The letter was a gentle reminder that in August, the state adopted a regulation making flu vaccinations mandatory, unless medically contraindicated, for health care workers in hospitals, outpatient clinics and home care services.

Legislation to include nursing home workers has also been proposed.

The new regulation will apply first to the routine annual seasonal influenza vaccine now available. With the recent FDA approval of the vaccine for novel H1N1 flu (“swine flu”), the regulation will also apply to that vaccine, just in time for the second wave of novel H1N1 influenza already returning this fall, Daines said.

Health-care workers have historically low vaccination rates — about 40 to 50 percent of the staff get the shot even in the most vigorous of voluntary programs.

Throughout this fall and winter, more patients than ever may enter our hospitals and clinics without effective influenza immunity.

CNN medical correspondent Sanjay Gupta will have some first-hand experince to add to his reporting on swine flu. The doctor writes on his blog that he caught the flu during a trip to Afghanistan. “I am not someone who gets sick, really ever. And this was the sickest I have ever been.”

A vaccine should be available in a couple of weeks—too late to help Gupta, who is recovering.

In what researchers are calling a major breakthrough, an experimental vaccine being tested in Thailand cut the risk of becoming infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, by nearly a third.

The trial of the new vaccine involved 16,000 adults in Thailand and was sponsored by the Surgeon General of the U.S. Army.

“These new findings represent an important step forward in HIV vaccine research,” says Anthony S. Fauci, M.D., director of  National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, part of the NIH, which provided major funding and other support for the study.

The Thai Phase III HIV vaccine study, also known as RV144, opened in October 2003. The placebo-controlled trial tested the safety and effectiveness of a prime-boost regimen of two vaccines: ALVAC-HIV vaccine (the primer dose), a modified canarypox vaccine developed by Sanofi Pasteur, based in Lyon, France; and AIDSVAX B/E vaccine (the booster dose), a glycoprotein 120 vaccine developed by Vaxgen Inc., and now licensed to Global Solutions for Infectious Diseases (GSID), based in South San Francisco, Calif. The vaccines are based on the subtype B and E HIV strains that commonly circulate in Thailand. The subtype B HIV strain is the one most commonly found in the United States.

Even a marginally helpful vaccine could have a big impact. Every day, 7,500 people worldwide are newly infected with HIV; 2 million died of AIDS in 2007, the U.N

The Interreligious Council of New Rochelle is hosting a prayer service and information session about Mental Illness on October 20 at 7 p.m. at the Church of the Holy Name of Jesus, 75 Lispenard Ave. in New Rochelle.

The event is expected to feature a short inter-faith prayer service followed by brief talks from officials from local institutions and tables with information.

For more information, call 914-633-2632.

Doctors at one of Westchester’s largest physician-owned specialty practices say their vision for medicine is modern and concise.

And now so is their name.

Today, the Westchester Medical Group, sometimes called WMG, announced it will call itself WESTMED.

The group has also launched a new Web site, www.westmedgroup.com, which features several private interactive patient tools including virtual medical records, lab and radiology results, pay bills, schedule appointments and request prescription renewals.

“WESTMED is a model of the future of medicine—right now—today—because we provide a broad range of quality, coordinated medical care; we offer a full service experience for patients; and we work to prevent major procedures and surgeries,” said Dr. Simeon Schwartz, the group’s president.

The Rockland Department of Health is offering flu vaccines  to protect against seasonal influenza for people age nine and older. The shots are free for Rockland residents age 60 and older. There will be a $25 charge for people under age 60. Proof of residency is required. The vaccines will be available from 1 p.m. until 4 p.m. every Friday from now until Nov. 20 at the Dr. Robert Yeager Health Center in Ramapo.

The vaccines will also be offered at senior centers and other locations throughout Rockland. The vaccines do not protect against the swine flu.

For more information and locations, contact the Department of Health at (845) 364-2534 or visit the county  Web site.

A new state law will allow the county Health Departments to inspect all summer day camps and further help protect children, officials said.

“This new law appropriately defines a children’s camp by the risk of its activities instead of whether it is set indoors or out,’’ Health Commissioner Dr. Joshua Lipsman said. “It will help us do our best to keep all Westchester campers safe each summer.’’

The legislation also allows the county to increase its permit fee to $200 to help offset the cost of these inspections.

The fee had remained the same for at least two decades, county officials said.

The bill was signed into law by the governor Wednesday night. It was sponsored by Assemblywoman Amy Paulin, D-Scarsdale, and State Sen. Suzi Oppenheimer, D-Mamaroneck, and will affect campers statewide.