Our 2nd annual ADVICE Collaborative II (called Turning the Tide on Infections) was held on May 17. Over 168 attendees representing the dialysis provider community, ADHS licensing, ADHS infectious disease services and Healthcare Associated Infections Advisory Committee End Stage Renal Disease Subcommittee continued their learning, sharing and networking to improve infection control performance in dialysis centers. Tamara Hoxworth [...]
Last week the FDA & EPA announced new draft fish consumption recommendations for women who are pregnant or breast-feeding. The new recommendations recommend at least 2 servings of low-mercury seafood every week. The recommendations are a big shift for the FDA & EPA- whose previous seafood advisory in 2004 set only an upper limit on the [...]
This week is Men’s Health Week, which is typically celebrated the week before Father’s Day. The health observance week is important to bring attention to the health issues men face, but we know staying healthy is a lifelong process. Year round we focus on men’s health issues through our Man Up Arizona blog. The blog [...]
Ben Franklin said: "Critics are our friends, they show us our faults". A true statement. When a reporter from Wisconsin wrote a story about newborn screening turn-around times around the country, we found out that we had room for improvement when it comes to the time it takes newborn metabolic screening samples to get from AZ hospitals to our Lab. Basically, [...]
CDC's Division of Violence Prevention just released a new toolkit that gives parents ways to interact more positively with their children. It’s called "Essentials for Parenting Toddlers and Preschoolers" and it’s a free evidence-based resource that is based on the best available evidence and designed for parents with children aged 2 to 4. The resource also [...]
Last summer a Superior Court judge decided that a portion of our medical marijuana regulations are unreasonable because our rules don’t have a process for dispensary registration certificate holders to renew their dispensary registration certificate if they didn’t earn their approval to operate within 1 year. That ruling requires us to change our medical marijuana regulations, and [...]
First there was West Nile virus and then dengue on our doorstep. Now it’s Chikungunya (pronunciation: \chik-en-gun-ye click to hear pronunciation)- which is a new disease threat in the Western hemisphere. Like dengue, this virus is spread by Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus mosquitos, causing fever and severe joint pain 3-7 days after a mosquito bite. There’s no cure- just supportive [...]
GOOOOAAAAAL!!! With the World Cup just around the corner, soccer fans are dusting off their jerseys and getting ready to cheer on their favorite team. For super-fans lucky enough to travel to Brazil to see the matches first hand, fans of opposing teams aren’t the biggest threat… a mosquito-borne disease is. Dengue, spread by the [...]
Last December I denied a petition to add Post Traumatic Stress Disorder to the list of debilitating medical conditions that qualify people for an Arizona Medical Marijuana Registration Card. I denied the petition because there was a lack of scientific evidence to document whether Cannabis is helpful or not to treat or provide palliative care for [...]
Every year, the Arizona Medical Association works with us to find one person who really stands out in the public health field to win the Public Health Service Award. This year Dr. Frank Walter, the medical director for our Bureau of Public Health Emergency Preparedness, was given the award at last week’s annual dinner. Dr. [...]
