Smoking during pregnancy remains a risk to the health of Arizona infants. The Health Status and Vital Statistics Report for 2013 found that 4.4% of Arizona moms smoked during their pregnancy. Smoking during pregnancy is associated with a significantly increased risk for many birth defects. A new article found that smoking during pregnancy is associated with [...]
If you're like my family, there are times when some of you don't get enough sleep. In fact about 30% of Americans don't get the number of hours of sleep we need to stay healthy. Now that everybody is plugged into an electronic device these days it seems to be getting worse. Electronic devices and even some night lights [...]
Tonight at 8 pm PBS American Experience will feature an episode called "The Forgotten Plague: Tuberculosis in America." Tuberculosis was the deadliest killer in human history prior to 1900. In fact, TB (then sometimes called Consumption) killed about 14% of all the people who ever lived prior to 1900. TB rifled through the US at the turn of the century, sometimes [...]
Food, water, air, shelter and sleep. Those are the Big 5 things that everyone needs. Everybody needs a good dose of restful sleep to stay healthy and thrive...but the amount of sleep changes throughout the lifetime. Last week, the National Sleep Foundation came out with some interesting and helpful recommendations for how much sleep folks need at various ages. When people don't get [...]
The new Healthy Heart Score developed by researchers at Harvard School of Public Health gives people an easy way to estimate their risk of developing cardiovascular disease based on simple lifestyle habits. The free web-based survey also gives users practical tips for improving their scores by incorporating heart-healthy habits into their daily lives. The calculator [...]
Leaders across Borders (LaB) is an advanced leadership development program funded by the U.S.-Mexico Border Health Commission. The idea is to build bi-national leadership capacity of public health, health care, and other community sectors to improve the health of communities in the U.S.- México border region. Right now (and through February 13) we’re looking for [...]
Over the last couple of years, we’ve been working with partners using data collected by the U of A to stem the tide of lower vaccination rates in Arizona schools. Last year’s initiatives included implementation of our Action Plan to Address Vaccine Exemptions which included updating the vaccine exemption form (which reinforces to parents know [...]
With all the news about Arizona’s measles outbreak, I’m sure you’ve heard just how important vaccination is for our community. Public health agencies study vaccine coverage data to understand how well communities are protected from preventable disease and to make targeted decisions about how to contain an outbreak. For example, if there’s a disease outbreak [...]
Last month the CDC issued their updated National and State Healthcare Associated Infections Progress Report, which provides healthcare-associated infections data from 2013. Overall, the report found improvements nationally in performance, with reductions in most categories. Between 2012 and 2013, we reduced catheter-associated urinary tract infections and surgical site infections. We’ve had significant improvements in central-line associated bloodstream [...]
We just got word last month from the CDC that we qualify for new funding to support accelerated infectious disease preparedness planning and response. The total award for Arizona is about $2.5M, which enhances our total Preparedness grant award by about 10%. The new funding is scheduled to arrive in April and is on an 18 [...]
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