For more than 20 years, public health advocates and clinical practitioners have been meeting in the Southwest to talk about what's new in TB and HIV. Earlier this month, Arizona’s public health and clinical representatives joined our federal and four-corner-state counterparts in Durango, Colorado. At this 21st conference, presentations ran the gamut from TB case [...]
The WHO declared the end of the Ebola outbreak in Sierra Leone on Nov. 7 when 42 days (two incubation periods) passed since the last Ebola patient was released from a Sierra Leone Ebola Treatment Unit. This led to modifications of entry screening and monitoring for travelers coming to the United States from Sierra Leone. [...]
The Arizona Nutrition Network in our Bureau of Nutrition and Physical Activity showcases a new campaign that encourages people to “Brighten the Family Table” with colorful vegetables and fruits. The campaign features a variety of healthy, colorful foods such as bright red peppers, colorful carrots, green vegetables like broccoli and leafy greens, pretty purple cabbage, [...]
Dengue and chikungunya are two mosquito-borne viruses that Arizonans can contract when traveling outside the country. If a mosquito in Arizona bites an infected person during their illness, it would be possible for the virus to start spreading in the state. To prevent this from happening, it is important for public health to identify suspected [...]
Our HIV Prevention Program in the Bureau of Tobacco and Chronic Disease launched Arizona's first statewide HIV prevention media campaign in late October. The media campaign uses the tagline “Its Only Dangerous When You Don’t Know It’s There” and is designed to positively promote and support HIV-related public health and safety. The campaign features people running [...]
Every year in the United States approximately 150,000 people are believed to be infected by Coccidioidomycosis, the fungus that causes Valley Fever. It is one of the most commonly reported infectious diseases in Arizona, and our state accounts for 65 percent of all reported cases in the US. Most people that are infected have mild [...]
Recently, two manuscripts from the ADHS Office of Infectious Disease Services were published in the Journal of Correctional Health Care. These publications described two outbreaks of botulism at an Arizona correctional facility in a 4-month period. Botulism, usually associated with improperly canned foods, causes flaccid paralysis that can lead to death without treatment or supportive [...]
Arizona’s Empower Program has been selected for inclusion in the third revision of SNAP-Ed Strategies & Interventions: An Obesity Prevention Toolkit for States (Toolkit) that will be released in November 2015. The Toolkit review process was conducted in partnership with USDA and the National Collaborative on Childhood Obesity Research (NCCOR). For the third revision of the Toolkit, more applications [...]
The March of Dimes released its 2015 Premature Birth Report Card today giving our state a “B” grade. New this year, the annual report card ranked state cities and revealed Arizona has a 9 percent preterm birth rate. The report card grades Arizona cities with the greatest number of births on their 2013 preterm birth rates. [...]
A new web application system, Environmental Laboratory Licensure System (ELLS), has been successfully launched for our Bureau of State Laboratory Services. The Office of Laboratory Services divides approved methods to test air particulates or emissions, hazardous and solid waste, safe drinking water and wastewater. There are four types of laboratories which are licensed. They include [...]
