Free Community Health Fair for Uninsured Adults from NCTV17 Naperville News 17 on Vimeo.

Community Health Fair

The Islamic Center of Naperville and Community United Methodist Church came together for the third year to host their free community health fair.

“We belong to one community which is humanity, regardless of our race and religion. Our ailments are the same – diabetes, high blood pressure. It affects anybody respective of who you are,” said Atif Fakhruddin, board member of ICN. “So when you bring together different faiths and communities you expand your region and can reach a lot more people like that, so I think this partnership is very important.”

Free Health Screenings

And by working together they have been able to bring in eight physicians and 20 nurses to give anyone 18 and older who is uninsured free screenings.

Those screenings include checking blood pressure, blood glucose for signs of diabetes, getting a flu shot, a basic eye and dental exam, and more.

Importance of the Health Fair

Getting all these checked are necessary, but it’s screening for diabetes and high blood pressure that’s most important.

“In most of the cases, people are walking around without knowing their blood pressure is at dangerous levels because it does not cause any symptoms,” said Usman Khan, doctor at the ICN Free Clinic. “A lot of people believe that when they have high blood pressure they are probably going to have a headache or chest pain. These are the symptoms at the very extreme level of the disease when the damage has already happened to these organs.”

That’s why health fairs like this should be easily accessible.

“We need to take care of those in our society who are less fortunate than we are and if we have an opportunity to do something like that then we should do it,” said Richard Fleming, a Community United Methodist Church volunteer.

Free Health Clinic

The Islamic Center of Naperville has a free clinic. If someone discovers an issue they need to follow up on at the health fair, then they can set up an appointment for further help.

Source:
Naperville Community Television
Article Link:
https://www.nctv17.com/news/free-community-health-fair-for-uninsured-adults/?fbclid=IwAR0aXyksqsMzqyn1dQFgdDIzHIoX-MCsqLKWqHf2Pc