Fletcher Fund for Equality & Education

Managed by an experienced team of staff, LifeBrite provides its customers with timely and accurate clinical analysis in order to facilitate informed decision making. In terms of paying it forward, LifeBrite CEO Christian Fletcher and COO Amber Fletcher established the Fletcher Fund for Equality and Education.

The Fletcher Fund for Equality and Education seeks to invest in students from underserved communities in their quest to pursue higher education opportunities. By offering scholarships, mentorships, and other forms of support to selected students, the fund helps students to break down barriers that impede higher education. The Fletcher Fund for Equality and Education announced they are accepting applications from exceptional students keen on realizing their dreams of higher education. The initial target is Mobile, Alabama, the hometown of Christian and Amber Fletcher, the founders of the organization.

Interested in giving back to their communities, the couple seeks to provide a level-playing field in accessing higher education opportunities at a time when the sector is faced with a lot of inequalities. The Fund hopes to assist students who have to grapple with numerous education costs besides tuition and end up giving up on their dream to pursue higher education and the opportunities it presents thereafter. In most cases, students opt to discontinue their studies when the burden of studying full-time becomes unbearable. According to Christian Fletcher, the determination shown by students from underserved communities to overcome their struggles to attain good grades deserves to be rewarded.

The Importance of Early Testing

LifeBrite Laboratories is an Atlanta, Georgia lab committed to quality testing spanning chemistry testing, toxicology, and molecular pathology. As patients are often reluctant to be tested for health conditions, LifeBrite Laboratories emphasizes the importance of early screening, both in preventing disease and avoiding the significant health and financial costs associated with chronic conditions as they become more severe.

Examples of conditions that can often be avoided or controlled when identified early enough are hypertension and diabetes. Managing diabetes through insulin is both better for the patient’s overall health and far less expensive than undergoing amputation due to diabetic neuropathy, which is just one of the many complications associated with diabetes.

In some cases, such as with sexually transmitted infections (STIs), stigma is a major obstacle that prevents patients from seeking out testing. This has major hidden costs, as a variety of STIs are asymptomatic, or take a lengthy period of time to manifest physically. Thus, there is a danger of the disease being unknowingly spread to others. Taking part in early testing, and informing potential sexual partners of the results, is part of a responsible behavior continuum that helps prevent STI outbreaks in the larger population.

HIV Treatment and Testing Improvements

Serving the needs of physicians and clinics nationwide, LifeBrite Laboratories offers a full range of lab testing capabilities in areas such as carrier testing, molecular pathology, and respiratory pathogen profiles. LifeBrite Laboratories’ core offerings include accurate sexually transmitted infection (STI) testing, including for HIV.

As featured on the company site, treatment and testing for AIDS, and the immune system depleting HIV virus, have progressed significantly since the condition emerged in the early 1980s. Early strides in a disease that impacted the lives of as many as 10 million people by the end of the decade included antiretroviral drug zidovudine (AZT) therapy. A 10-minute testing kit was introduced in 1992, and two years later a rapid oral HIV test was approved.

At the same time, the existing AZT therapy was expanded upon and made more widely available. Introduction of a pioneering protease inhibitor led to highly active antiretroviral treatment (HAART) in 1995 that immediately reduced AIDS-related mortality by as much as 80 percent.

In 2017, further medical advances, coupled with awareness efforts, led to another breakthrough moment, in which a majority of those living with HIV around the world had access to antiretroviral treatment. At present HIV treatments are generally effective and accessible, though they are expensive. Testing is still the most critical component in preventing the disease from spreading, and it’s recommended that all sexually active adolescents and adults (up to age 64), as well as pregnant women, undergo HIV tests at least once.