Last week, we hosted our seventh annual Arizona Infectious Disease Training and Exercise, where nearly 400 partners from a wide variety of organizations joined together to learn and share about current infectious disease trends in Arizona and surrounding states. We hosted speakers from local Arizona jurisdictions, other states, CDC, and even from Sonora, Mexico. Our [...]
Last week, more than 150 local, state, tribal, and federal partners working throughout Arizona participated in a tabletop exercise as part of the seventh annual Arizona Infectious Disease Training and Exercise. Participants were from diverse professional arenas including public health, environmental health, public health preparedness, infection prevention, nursing, veterinary services, and academia. The exercise was based on an animal-borne [...]
We will be celebrating World Breastfeeding Week August 1 through 7. The week is an opportunity to showcase the benefits of breastfeeding, and what international support looks like for pregnant and breastfeeding women all over the world from various organizations and community groups. We will be hosting an event called LATCH-AZ, which will offer breastfeeding education [...]
The World Health Organization is calling on everyone to "Know hepatitis - Act now" this World Hepatitis Day on July 28. Hepatitis is an inflammation of the liver and is often caused by a virus. The three most common viruses that cause viral hepatitis in the U.S. are hepatitis A, hepatitis B, and hepatitis C. [...]
Amal, age 17, Maricopa County The Office of Infectious Disease just concluded its fifth annual Healthy Swimming Contest . This year, 50 healthy swimming posters were submitted from Arizona kids ranging in ages from two to 17 years old. All posters submitted suggested ways to swim healthy and avoid getting a recreational water [...]
Ever wonder about the likely transmission pathway of Zika Virus, or maybe about the symptoms of Brucellosis? Now you can easily look up this information and more in our new mobile app, the AZ Infectious Disease Resource (IDAZ). The official launch of the app coincides with our annual Arizona Infectious Disease Exercise and Training (July [...]
Arizona uses a Certificate of Necessity process to license ambulance services. This process can be challenging for new applicants because it uses terminology and accounting practices that the person responsible for completing the application may not be familiar with. To help overcome that problem, our Bureau of EMS and Trauma System has begun posting important [...]
Our agency continues to measure what matters in an effort to improve our services to Arizonans and review these measurements on a routine basis to ensure we’re on track in achieving our mission. One critical component of the work we do here is providing education, recommendations, and guidance to the public, healthcare providers, and public [...]
Last summer Arizona had an outbreak of St. Louis encephalitis virus, which is similar to West Nile virus. Both are spread most commonly by the bite of an infected mosquito, but other possible routes of infection include organ transplants, blood transfusions, or needle sticks in laboratories. Public health was notified that one person in Arizona [...]
Data is an instrumental component of public health that helps us monitor population health, plan and evaluate interventions, and track priorities. One of our most valuable sources of public health data is the annual Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS), which is a telephone survey that collects data from Arizona adults 18 and older. The BRFSS survey collects data related [...]
