The 2017–2018 influenza season has arrived in Arizona! Since the beginning of October, Arizona has had 92 laboratory-confirmed cases of influenza reported from 10 counties, compared to 20 cases at this time last year. This means if you and your family haven’t gotten vaccinated yet, now is the time. The influenza vaccine is the best [...]
It’s a busy time of year when kids are out of school, some businesses are closing up shop for the holidays, and people are taking some quality time to spend with friends and family. The last thing you need right now is a case of the flu. The tiredness, achiness, fever, and congestion [...]
Most people think that when the weather warms up, we can stop worrying about the flu. But it’s still here. Recently, a young Gila County child died from influenza. It's the only pediatric death from flu in Arizona this year, last year 5 children under 18 died. Adult flu deaths are not tracked by the [...]
Just in time for the holidays, we’re got our first lab confirmed case of influenza – actually two cases. Influenza has probably been in the state for a while now, but we don’t officially start counting the cases until there is a case confirmed at our lab. The vaccine was approved this summer and fights 3 [...]
CDC has developed new and easy-to-use resources for preventing infections in outpatient treatment facilities. The Infection Prevention Guide and Prevention Checklist is posted on the new CDC website for outpatient care facilities.
I was in Atlanta a couple of weeks ago for new health officer orientation and was able to meet with Dr. Frieden (the new head of the CDC) a couple of times. Each time that we met he referred to a general theme that the CDC will be using over the next 3 years to drive [...]
Some of the best infection control experts are laying out the plan on how to fight Healthcare-Associated Infections in the next decade. The International Conference on HAIs just wrapped up in Atlanta – it marked the first time that four leading scientific organizations committed to infection prevention are working together to further a scientific and [...]
