If you haven’t received a COVID-19 vaccine yet, now’s the time to join many other of your fellow Arizonans who are doing so right now. No one will criticize you; there is no shame. In fact, you’ll be welcomed with smiles and open arms! You are not alone. The Arizona Department of Health Services reports [...]
Expectant mothers certainly need the help of skilled health care professionals before, during and after the birth of their child. But sometimes mothers and their families can benefit from more than medical expertise. That’s where doulas help. A doula is a trained companion – not a health care professional – who supports another person through [...]
I shared last week how the end of the state’s COVID-19 Declaration of Emergency changes what our COVID-19 Data Dashboard carries for hospital-reported data. A surveillance order through which some of this information was reported to ADHS is no longer in effect. As a result, the dashboard entries for Hospital COVID-19 Specific Metrics, and Ventilator [...]
In just the past 22 years, the rate of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) in Arizona has more than tripled, with more than half of all cases affecting those 25 and younger. During STI Awareness Week, I’m calling attention to three critical steps: Talk. Test. Treat. All three can help protect your health and your partner’s [...]
After nearly 27 years in the U.S. Air Force, Teresa Ehnert was looking for a new career that would allow her to use the skills and values she developed in the military. She found it in the Arizona Department of Health Services. “I love working for the state of Arizona because they exemplify things I [...]
The end of the state’s COVID-19 Declaration of Emergency means changes to three entries on our weekly COVID-19 Data Dashboard that have relied on information reported by hospitals. Starting with this week’s update, the graphs under Hospital Bed Usage and Availability, Hospital COVID-19 Specific Metrics, and Ventilator Usage and Availability will no longer be updated. [...]
For more than two years, Arizonans have associated ADHS most with the state’s COVID-19 response. That makes perfect sense, as the global pandemic has required an all-hands-on-deck approach. While that commitment is unchanged, we’d like to take time over the coming months, and starting with National Public Health Week, to highlight other things ADHS does [...]
It’s impossible to mark National Public Health Week without acknowledging the efforts of the ADHS staff during the COVID-19 pandemic. Over the past 27 months, hundreds of public health professionals across all ADHS programs have spent more than 250,000 hours supporting our health emergency operations center, our partners, and all of Arizona. Here are just [...]
The past two years have shown us that public health is critical. That’s one reason why we at ADHS are excited to mark National Public Health Week and to have Governor Doug Ducey commemorate this week by proclamation. Public health is more than a single topic; it’s countless issues and practices that help every American [...]
Governor Ducey, at the recommendation of ADHS, has terminated the state’s COVID-19 Declaration of Emergency. His announcement makes clear, however, that public health’s response to COVID-19 will continue. Jessica Rigler, our assistant director for public health preparedness, put it this way during a recent ADHS virtual town hall on COVID-19 vaccines for children: “Public health [...]
