Preparedness

Items in the Preparedness category will cover everything from Emergency Medical Services to vaccination programs. This division at ADHS tracks contagious disease, coordinates emergency preparedness activity, licenses EMTs and Paramedics, regulates ambulance companies, authorizes special hospital designations like cardiac care center and Level IV trauma center, issues birth and death certificates, and tracks critical health data through various sources including hospital discharge information.

Wildfire Season Kicks Off

By |2017-02-10T09:49:38-07:00May 23rd, 2014|Licensing, Preparedness|

The first big fire of the season started this week in Oak Creek Canyon- called the Slide fire.  Smoke is usually the first public health impact from wildland fires.  The air quality in Flagstaff and Sedona has been generally OK- but poor at times depending on the winds (smoke levels in Sedona have been high [...]

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ADHS Publishes Arizona-Specific “Evidence Toolkit” for Decision-Making

By |2017-02-10T09:49:38-07:00May 19th, 2014|Preparedness|

The core of our decision-making as an agency relies on evidence.  Evidence can be scientific like surveillance or research or it can be administrative or financial (like return on investment).  Whichever way you slice it- the key is to get good reliable information so that our public health system can make effective decisions as we [...]

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MERS-CoV x 2

By |2017-02-10T09:49:38-07:00May 16th, 2014|Preparedness|

A couple of weeks ago a healthcare worker who recently returned from Saudi Arabia was the first confirmed case of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) in the U.S.  This week the CDC and the Florida health department   confirmed a 2nd US case.   A person with MERS traveled Saudi Arabia - London - Boston - Atlanta - [...]

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Federal Funds for Arizona Public Health

By |2017-02-10T09:49:40-07:00May 13th, 2014|General, Preparedness, Prevention|

We use a lot of CDC grants  in Arizona to promote public health.  I’ve talked about what we do with the Maternal and Child Health, as well as the Behavioral Health, grants in previous blogs.  There’s another grant that lets us focus on issues that are specifically tailored to Arizona.  The Preventive Health block grant helps fund our [...]

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First Case of MERS in U.S.

By |2017-02-10T09:49:41-07:00May 2nd, 2014|General, Preparedness|

A healthcare worker who recently returned from Saudi Arabia is the first confirmed case of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) in the U.S.  The person's in stable condition in isolation in an Indiana hospital. All public health agencies around the world have been carefully watching for new cases of MERS since the disease was [...]

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Dodging the Measles Bullet?

By |2017-02-10T09:49:41-07:00May 1st, 2014|Preparedness|

You might remember from a few weeks ago that a single patient exposed over 1,000 Arizonans to measles.  Because measles is highly infectious and 90% of unvaccinated contacts become infected, Public Health worked overtime to identify and interview suspected cases.   Health care facilities were placed on heightened alert.  The State Laboratory rushed testing of suspicious [...]

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More Arizona Parents Choosing Not to Vaccinate their Kids

By |2017-02-10T09:49:43-07:00April 11th, 2014|Preparedness|

As I mentioned in a blog post last year, more AZ parents are choosing not to vaccinate their kids- using “personal exemptions” when they enroll their kids in school.  This has jeopardized our immunization rates enough that this week’s measles case in Maricopa County could spread.  We’ll know in a couple of weeks. Vaccinating yourself and [...]

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Epidemiologists: Public Health’s Smoke-Jumpers

By |2017-02-10T09:49:43-07:00April 10th, 2014|Preparedness, Prevention|

Like a hotshot team, a rapid response by public health is essential to stopping the spread of measles in unvaccinated persons… and disease detectives in Maricopa County are currently working to squash a measles outbreak right now. Last week a person with measles visited a restaurant, church and airport in Arizona, exposing over a thousand [...]

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Ebola

By |2017-02-10T09:49:44-07:00March 31st, 2014|Preparedness|

If you’re like me, your introduction to Ebola virus came in the 1990s with the bestseller nonfiction thriller The Hot Zone and loosely-based film Outbreak.  The descriptions of a deadly hemorrhagic fever that quickly spread through the population were terrifying, as were the life-threatening dangers posed to the intervening infectious disease personnel. The Guinea Ministry [...]

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2014-2015 Influenza Vaccine Recommendation

By |2017-02-10T09:49:45-07:00March 20th, 2014|Preparedness|

Every year the World Health Organization holds a meeting with worldwide experts to make recommendations for the next season’s Northern Hemisphere flu vaccine. It seems strange to plan for next season when we’re still in the midst of the current flu season, but the vaccine-making process still takes about 6 months. Influenza season generally ramps [...]

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Arizona Department of Health Services

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