Archive for the ‘Prevention’ category

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Swim Safe AZ!

May 17th, 2013

National Recreational Water Illness and Injury Prevention Week is coming up next week.  Healthy swimming depends on paying attention to basic health, hygiene, sun-safety, and what swimmers bring into the pool (and what they don’t).  For starters, remind your kids to take a sunscreen, hydration, and bathroom break every hour when swimming.  You might also want to start the summer off right by getting your kids a UV protective swim shirt.  After all…  90% of lifetime sun exposure happens before you’re 20- so you can have a big influence on your kid’s lifetime risk for skin cancer.  And remember- there’s no substitute for adult supervision especially for rookie swimmers. 

Hygiene tips include not swimming when you (or your kids) have diarrhea, reminding your kids not to swallow pool water, and practicing good hygiene (shower before swimming and wash your hands after changing diapers).  And remember- little kids should have a swim diaper…  and always change diapers in the bathroom or diaper-changing areas (not poolside).  You can visit our Waterborne Disease site and a new CDC report about fecal contamination in pools to learn more. 

This year we’ll be holding a healthy swimming video contest to build awareness of safe swimming.  Kids can create a 2-minute healthy swimming video to help educate people about safe swimming including sun safety, staying hydrated while swimming, and preventing the spread of germs at pools, lakes, and water parks. The deadline for submission is June 16th and the website has the complete details and contest rules. The winning video will be used in a statewide water safety campaign. Last year’s winning video is up on YouTube.

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Healthcare Innovation – 2

May 15th, 2013

I’ve been writing quite a bit about population health and the importance of creating healthy environments for communities.  Some of those innovations take creativity and cash to make them work.  Help is on the way – today, the feds announced the Healthcare Innovation Awards – Round 2.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services put up $1 billion to entice better care and lower costs in healthcare.  CMS will award money to projects that specifically improve comprehensive health and wellness; improve care for people with special needs; reduce the cost for patients on AHCCCS and in Medicare; and for providers to change financial and clinical models. 

For example – a program that helps a population fight diabetes or one that helps integrate behavioral health care with primary care might be selected.  Funds are available to non-profits, communities, healthcare providers, provider groups, faith-based organizations – almost every type of company, government or partnership. 

Folks who are interested have to send in a Letter of Intent by June 28th.  You can find out more on the CMS Frequently Asked Questions page.

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Posted in Behavioral Health, Prevention

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New Program Helps Women Improve Overall Health

May 13th, 2013

Minority populations often have poorer health outcomes than non-minority populations… but our new Power Me A2Z is doing something to change that.  Power Me A2Z empowers women to take steps to promote good health for their families and their future children. It offers women a free 90-day supply of vitamins with folic acid and tools to help women be healthy.  

All women need folic acid in their bodies before they get pregnant to help prevent birth defects.  Plus it acts as a beauty aid to make hair shine, nails grown, and skin glow.  Power Me A2Z is a perfect example of uniting our communities by empowering women to take charge of their health and advancing health equity for current and future generations. Visit the Power Me A2Z website to learn more about this exciting program.

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Mother’s Day and Women’s Health Week

May 12th, 2013

Mother’s Day kicks off this year’s National Women’s Health Week with the theme “It’s Your Time.” This year’s celebration centers around how women take care of other people—their children, spouses, family, friends, and co-workers—but also need to take the time to care for themselves.

We’re hosting the 4th annual Women’s Health Week Celebration for state employees May 14 & 15 at the State Capitol building on first and second floors from 10 to 2.  The program will include health screenings and several exhibitors where you can learn more about the programs offered for women.  Some of the highlights of the celebration include a presentation titled “A How-To Guide for Buying Fresh Fruits and Vegetables” at 11 on Tuesday in the 2nd floor atrium and a presentation titled “If I’d Known I was Going to Live This Long, I’d Have Taken Better Care of Myself” at noon on Wednesday in the 2nd floor conference room.

Then on Thursday, there’s a Women’s Health Celebration walk that is open to the public.  At 9 am, we’re all gathering at the 9/11 Memorial on Wesley Bolin Plaza.  While the Women’s Health Week celebration is designed to draw attention for women to take care of themselves, men can take advantage of the time too.  Just visit our Healthy Living page for ideas on how to be active, eat healthily and take care of your whole health.

Happy Mother’s Day to all the Moms out there and all the people who are seen as Moms!   It’s Your Time

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Posted in General, Prevention

SARS déjà vu?

May 11th, 2013

Last month the World Health Organization (WHO) began to receive reports of human cases with SARS-like infections caused by a new coronavirus. According to WHO, 30 cases of this new illness have been found and 60% of the infections have been fatal. So far, the cases have been limited to Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, the UK and France. Symptoms are pretty serious and include fever, cough and shortness of breath. Most of the people infected have required hospitalization. It looks like the virus spreads person to person, but scientists don’t yet know enough to say for sure.

CDC, WHO, and other public health organizations are looking into all severe acute respiratory cases, especially those with recent travel to the Arabian Peninsula to identify any new cases of the virus and learn more about how it might be spreading. No cases have been found in the US.  Here’s some up to date information if you’re interested in learning more.

Yesterday I blogged about what we’ve learned since we first discovered SARS. 

 

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National Campaign Shows Real Dangers of Tobacco Use

May 6th, 2013

Continuing with the success of last year’s landmark national tobacco education campaign- the CDC is launching “Tips from Former Smokers” which will run in Arizona through the end of June.  The media campaign showcases the real and devastating effects of smoking & secondhand smoke.  The ads feature people with smoking-related health conditions and candidly describe the impact of tobacco and the benefits of quitting. 

The national campaign from CDC is a great supplement to our statewide efforts to help people quit smoking and preventing young people from starting.  We operate the widely successful ASHLine, which offers free evidence-based cessation services and nicotine replacement therapies for all Arizonans. The ASHLine has a 32% quit rate, which means that we’re helping more people every day to kick the habit. 

The CDCs ad’s encourage folks to call 1-800-QUITNOW- which in AZ will roll up directly to our ASHLine (1.800.55.66.222) helping even more Arizonans find local resources to help Arizonans kick the habit.

 

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National Spotlight on AZ’s High Risk Perinatal Program

May 1st, 2013

The March edition of the Association of Maternal and Child Health Program’s Issue Brief highlights the great strides Arizona has made in decreasing neonatal deaths since the inception of our High Risk Perinatal Program/Newborn Intensive Care Program. When the program started in the 1970s, 1.8% of neonates died within a month of being born.  As a result of a host of Maternal and Child Health interventions over the last 40 years, that percentage has dropped to about 0.4%.  

One key component includes using community health nurses to follow and support families as they transition from the hospital to home.  Community health nurses do developmental, physical and environmental assessments, provide education and guidance to families, and direct families to programs and services. While in the home, the community health nurses can also asses other children and screen mothers for postpartum wellness. This is a great example of how long-term public health programs can have a significant impact on the overall health of the people of Arizona. This national report highlights Arizona’s programs as well as programs in California, Colorado and Utah.

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Measles & International Travel

April 30th, 2013

Guest Blog from Ken Komatsu, State Epidemiologist

With over 1 billion people crossing international borders each year, vaccine preventable diseases not usually found in Arizona, can arrive at any time.  Earlier this month a young child from Pima County became ill with a rash illness while visiting Asia.  This region of the world has had over a thousand cases of measles reported in the last six months as shown on this world map of measles.  Also, there was a community outbreak of measles in the town the child was visiting at the time.  While her older siblings were already immunized, the child did not receive measles vaccine prior to travel because of age.  The child was diagnosed with measles while in Asia, but continued traveling to London, New York and finally to Phoenix.

 

The child’s diagnosis was confirmed by our state public health laboratory after arrival, our epidemiologists followed up with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Division of Global Migration and Quarantine.  CDC worked with the airlines to get names of all the passengers exposed on the two flights to the state health departments where each lives.  Health departments followed up on 53 passengers with possible exposure across the country:  5 from Arizona, 3 from Florida, 1 from Maryland, 1 from Massachusetts, 1 from Michigan, 12 from New Jersey, 24 from New York and 1 from North Carolina.

 

Luckily, no new measles cases among the exposed have been reported and the child was probably less infectious since he/she had already been ill for a few days during travel.  While our routine vaccination schedule does not recommend measles vaccination until 12 months of age, infants as young as 6 months should receive measles vaccine prior to international travel.  This child’s illness and all the hours of follow up by our epidemiologists, CDC, and seven other states, could have been prevented with one shot.  Another great reason for immunizing our children and adolescents since these diseases are still only a plane ride away.  For more information on health issues during international travel, please see the CDC Yellow Book.

 

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Put a Stop to Poisoning

April 25th, 2013

The benefit of everything is determined by dosage.  Even water, a critical element for life, is bad for the human body when you have too much.  But when it comes to prescription drugs, the dosage is incredibly important.  Doctors spend years learning about which medications work for what and how much is the right dose.  Lots of us think that we know what’s best for our bodies and we keep around medication from previous visits to the doctor – just in case we need it.  That can be really dangerous for us and for others in the house.  Small children might think the pills or medicine is candy… older children might try experimenting or their friends may steal it from your medicine cabinet. 

That’s why days like this Saturday are important for getting rid of mediation you aren’t currently prescribed.  There are more than 90 locations across Arizona that will let you drop off those medications from 10 am to 2 pm.  It’s hosted by the Drug Enforcement Agency and local law enforcement.  Just go to the DEA’s website and click on the “Got Drugs” button.  From there you can put in your zip code to find the closest place to you.

Reducing substance abuse is one of our five winnable battles in Arizona.  We turned a corner a few years ago when the number of drug-related deaths passed the number of people who die in car accidents.  We joined several other state agencies in a Prescription Drug Reduction Initiative.  Part of effort includes the installation of permanent drug drop boxes were installed in three counties: Yavapai (5), Pinal (7) and Graham (4). Besides the boxes tied to the Initiative, there are permanent drug drop boxes in Greenlee County and Cochise County. These boxes aren’t the only thing the initiative is doing…  last summer we held a forum to talk about prescription drugs and how people get them.  We’ve created some great tools for emergency rooms based on what we learned there.  Stay tuned for that.

When you make your honey do list for the weekend activities, think about adding “drug drop off” to the list.

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Public Health Conference Offers a Chance to Hear from National Public Health Expert

April 23rd, 2013

The Arizona Public Health Association will hold the 2013 Spring Conference on Wednesday, April 24…  focusing on how we can address removing barriers to access healthcare, integrate primary care and mental health, and strengthen Arizona’s capacity to improve health equity. The Conference will feature a keynote address from one of the nations most decorated and well-respected health experts.  Headlining the Spring Conference will be Dr. Richard Carmona, who served as the 17th Surgeon General of the US.  Dr. Carmona is a highly trained trauma surgeon, a decorated combat Special Forces Vietnam Veteran, one of the most honored police officers in Arizona known for his SWAT expertise, a graduate of the University of Arizona’s Public Health Program, and one of the nation’s premier experts on public health and the healthcare system. 

Dr. Carmona will deliver his Keynote Address at 8:45 a.m. on April 24th and will be the featured guest at a reception on April 23. For those of you who haven’t had the chance to meet Dr. Carmona or hear him speak, the Spring Conference and the reception are the perfect chance to meet him and hear his dynamic keynote speech. You don’t want to miss this opportunity.  Sessions will feature Integration of Care, the Network of Public Health Law, and Community Participatory Research.  There will also be displays and exhibits from many of our public health partners.  The full conference is from 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. on April 24 at the University of Arizona Phoenix Campus, 550 East Van Buren Street. Registration costs are between $75 and $135. 

A reception for Dr. Carmona will be held from 6 to 7 p.m. on April 23 at 1130 The Restaurant, 455 North 3rd Street.  Tickets for the reception are only $45 and all the proceeds will go to the AZPHA Lloyd E Burton Student Scholarship Program- which helps to educate the next generation of public health professionals.

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