Prevention – Page 44 – AZ Dept. of Health Services News

Topics here will include issues that fall into the Prevention Division of the agency, which include – as the name implies – programs that help prevent disease in our state. You will find information about chronic diseases (cancer, heart health, breathing disorders) as well as tobacco use prevention. This area also includes education about Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and the Women, Infant and Children programs; both USDA programs that help provide nutrition to lower income residents.

Got drugs?

By Will Humble|2017-02-10T09:49:42-07:00April 25th, 2014|Prevention|

You may be contributing to one of Arizona’s biggest public health problems and not even realize it. Arizona has the 6th highest rate in the country for prescription drug misuse and drug overdose death. What’s really frightening is that more than 90% of Arizona youth that misuse prescription drugs get them from family and friends. The [...]

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FDA Bites the E-cigarette Regulation Bullet

By Will Humble|2017-02-10T09:49:42-07:00April 24th, 2014|Prevention|

It’s no public health secret that tobacco use continues to be a dominant cause of preventable disease and death in the US. While the trend has been encouraging (Arizona’s smoking rate is down to 17%), there’s still much work to be done- and continued efforts to provide creative and effective ways to help adult smokers [...]

Novel Group B Strep Intervention for Babies

By Will Humble|2017-02-10T09:49:42-07:00April 23rd, 2014|Prevention|

Group B Streptococcus bacteria is a leading cause of infection and death within the first week of life. Each year about 40 infants less than 1-week old get early-onset group B strep disease in Arizona. The bacteria can cause life-threatening infections like sepsis (infection of the blood), pneumonia (infection in the lungs), and meningitis (infection [...]

FDA Approves Painkiller Overdose Field Treatment

By Will Humble|2017-02-10T09:49:43-07:00April 14th, 2014|Prevention|

It’s no secret that misuse and abuse of opiate painkillers like OxyContin and Vicodin are a large and growing public health threat in Arizona- misuse and abuse of these medicines are now killing more Arizonans than car crashes. Last week the FDA approved a prescription treatment called Evzio that can be used in medical emergencies caused by prescription [...]

Epidemiologists: Public Health’s Smoke-Jumpers

By Will Humble|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 [...]

Let’s Get Screened

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

Colorectal cancer is the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths in Arizona. Across men and women, all age groups, races, and ethnicities, about ½ of all colorectal cancer diagnoses in Arizona are late-stage, which are more difficult to treat. Our Fit at Fifty HealthCheck Program screens about 1,500 Arizonans per year by providing Fecal Immunochemical Tests [...]

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Medicare Cost Transparency

By Will Humble|2017-02-10T09:49:43-07:00April 9th, 2014|Prevention|

I’ve always believed that transparency improves the efficiency of any system. Health care costs are no exception- and health care reimbursement costs are probably at the top of the list of systems that could be improved by applying a healthy dose of cost transparency. Today the federal government took a giant step forward when they [...]

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Prom Tools for Parents

By Will Humble|2017-02-10T09:49:44-07:00April 3rd, 2014|Prevention|

In the next few weeks many AZ teens will be attending proms. While proms can have positive memories, the experiences can turn tragic when alcohol is part of the mix. Alcohol impairs judgment… potentially leading to sexual assault, unplanned pregnancies, sexually transmitted infections and deadly car crashes. Car crashes are the leading cause of death among teens… [...]

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Farm Bill Provides Public Health Intervention Options

By Will Humble|2017-02-10T09:49:44-07:00April 1st, 2014|Prevention|

The passage of the Farm Bill (the Agricultural Act of 2014) includes some changes and reforms to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP or food stamps) and the Commodity Supplemental Food Program. In Arizona, SNAP benefits help put healthy food on the table for more than one million people each month, with more than half of the benefits going to [...]

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Tuberculosis & Mankind

By Will Humble|2014-03-24T09:25:06-07:00March 24th, 2014|Prevention|

Tuberculosis and mankind share a dramatic and intertwined history. TB has caused millions of deaths every year for centuries, been found in Egyptian mummies, has placed patients into sanatoriums, and has even has a folklore link relating it with vampires, The drama continues into this decade: in 2012, there were 8.8 million new cases of [...]

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