General – Page 45 – AZ Dept. of Health Services News

New Vaccine Exemption Form Being Used this Year

By Will Humble|2017-02-10T09:50:03-07:00October 28th, 2013|General|

Arizona law requires kids to receive certain vaccines in order to attend school unless a doctor signs a medical exemption form or a parent signs a religious or personal beliefs exemption form. There has been an increasing number of parents who are signing exemption forms- putting herd immunity at risk in some parts of the [...]

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Patient Confidentiality: Public Health’s Sacred Trust

By Will Humble|2017-02-10T09:50:04-07:00October 17th, 2013|General|

Public health surveillance is a cornerstone of public health practice… and the effectiveness of that surveillance system rests on a foundation of patient confidentiality. The public’s consent for allowing their personal medical information to be reported is made with the understanding that the data will be kept confidential. The moment we jeopardize the trust, [...]

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Evaluating a Trauma System II

By Will Humble|2017-02-10T09:50:04-07:00October 17th, 2013|General|

A couple of weeks ago, I introduced the concept of “Over Triage”… which is when EMS transports a patient to the highest level of care (like a level I trauma center) when they could have taken them to a level III or IV trauma center closer to their home. The downside of over-triage is that [...]

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Health in All Policies Guidance

By Will Humble|2017-02-10T09:50:04-07:00October 16th, 2013|General, Prevention|

The California Department of Public Health, the California Endowment, and the Public Health Institute released a document called "Health in All Policies: A Guide for State and Local Governments" this week… which provides best practices to improve the public's health and safety by incorporating health considerations into decision-making across all sectors and policy areas. The [...]

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Border Car Seat Safety Program Moves Forward

By Will Humble|2017-02-10T09:50:05-07:00October 9th, 2013|General|

A cooperative partnership between Arizona and Sonora highlights the importance of a safe ride home for all children and their families. Car seat use in Arizona is about 90%, yet car seat use in Sonora is less than 20%. A lot of this is because car seats cost more in Mexico than they do in [...]

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International Data Sharing

By Will Humble|2017-02-10T09:50:06-07:00October 8th, 2013|General|

Arizona and Sonora have a long history of collaborating on many projects over the years. We long ago understood that disease doesn't stop at the border. Arizona and Sonora were the 1st states along the U.S.-Mexico Border to share information on cross border cases in an organized way. Since 2008, we’ve been sharing this information electronically [...]

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Valley Fever Clinical Trial

By Will Humble|2017-02-10T09:50:06-07:00October 2nd, 2013|General|

Earlier this week, a big event happened in Bakersfield, California where federal, state, and local officials met for a Valley Fever symposium. The symposium was led by California Congressman Kevin McCarthy. Rep. McCarthy was joined by Arizona Congressman David Schweikert, co-chair of the House of Representatives Valley Fever Task Force, Dr. Thomas Frieden, director of [...]

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Dogs & River Blindness

By Will Humble|2017-02-10T09:50:07-07:00October 1st, 2013|General|

Last year a young child came down with onchocerciasis in northern Arizona. Onchocerciasis, is caused by a filarial worm similar to dog heartworm and the roundworm that causes elephantiasis. This child had a dog-related species (Onchocerca lupi) of the roundworm in her neck next to her spinal cord and was the first documented case in the [...]

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50 Years of Newborn Screening

By Will Humble|2017-02-10T09:50:07-07:00September 29th, 2013|General, Newborn Screening, Preparedness|

The first newborn screening test was developed in 1963 by Dr. Robert Guthrie to test for phenylketonuria, commonly known as PKU. Since then, scientists have developed more tests to screen newborns for a variety of severe conditions. This year, the nation celebrates 50 Years of Newborn Screening. The State of Arizona currently screens for 29 [...]

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E-cigarettes and Teens

By Will Humble|2017-02-10T09:50:07-07:00September 27th, 2013|General|

E-cigarettes have been a huge topic of discussion in the tobacco control industry and in public health over the past few years. While containing no actual tobacco, they do contain nicotine, are flavored and require the user to emulate the act of smoking. The CDC recently released a study showing that e-cigarette use has doubled [...]

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