During the World Cup, I wrote about dengue, since it’s endemic in Brazil. Every year, we get a handful of dengue cases reported in Arizona (4 last year) that are associated with travel to a country with dengue circulation, but for the first time, dengue is at our border. Over the last few weeks, locally transmitted [...]
The Arizona State Hospital will be hosting a Job Fair on Wednesday, November 12, from 9am to Noon at 501 N. 24th Street, Phoenix. We’re looking for folks that might be interested in joining our team at the Arizona State Hospital. We’ll be recruiting for various positions like Psychiatric RN’s, Mental Health Program Specialists, and [...]
Influenza season officially arrived last week when our Arizona State Public Health Laboratory confirmed the 1st AZ-acquired influenza case for the 2014-2015 season. Although flu activity is monitored year-round in Arizona, the start of the season intensifies our statewide surveillance activities. Partners across the state (including local health departments, laboratories and healthcare providers) participate by reporting [...]
We just finished the second meeting of the Governor’s Council on Infectious Disease Preparedness and Response. At the 1st meeting (a couple of weeks ago) we outlined key priorities: 1) identifying an “Infectious Disease Treatment Center of Excellence” that would be proficient at treating emerging infectious diseases such as Ebola; 2) developing a parallel emergency medical [...]
Did you know Valley Fever (Coccidioidomycosis) is one of the most commonly reported infectious diseases in Arizona? While most people infected with Valley Fever experience mild or no symptoms at all, some suffer from more severe symptoms including pneumonia or the spread of the fungus to other parts of the body, including the brain. Although [...]
Every year the March of Dimes reviews where we are as a nation in reducing premature birth. Being born too early can impact a child’s ability to live a healthy life. It is one of the leading causes of infant death. Arizona has been improving the preterm birth rate for the past 7 years. In [...]
The use of a Child and Family Team is a service offered to all children, adolescents and young adults under the age of 21 enrolled in the Tribal and Regional Behavioral Health Authority systems. The teams are comprised of people important to the child and their development and focus on family group decision making to [...]
Our Community Profiles Dashboard is a powerful new tool public health professionals, city planners, non-profit organizations, medical providers and anyone interested in health data. In Part I of the series we covered the Dashboards and the Primary Care Areas. The second blog and video demo explored suicide data and how you can compare rural and [...]
We held our first Governor’s Council on Infectious Disease Preparedness and Response meeting late last week. The Council outlined 2 priorities…identifying a hospital or hospitals in Arizona that would be responsible for treating any Ebola patient, and improving outreach to physicians across the state to ensure that they have the information needed to effectively identify [...]
This week the CDC began providing us with a daily listing of people arriving in Arizona from Ebola affected countries. This is valuable information because it allows us to more quickly and easily identify suspect cases of Ebola right away-before community exposures occur. This week we received information about a handful of low-risk people that are [...]
