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 [...]
Last week Southwest Ambulance workers (Southwest is a subsidiary of Rural/Metro) voted to authorize their union management to call a strike in Pima, Pinal, and Maricopa Counties. The union’s management hasn't yet called for a strike and hopefully both parties will continue to negotiate and reach a deal. If they do decide to call a strike, [...]
Last fall I wrote about how contagious Ebola is compared to other diseases, using a mathematical calculation called R0 (R naught). R0 is a tool we use in epidemiology to estimate the average number of people one sick person will infect. The R0 for measles is off the charts. It has one of the highest R0 [...]
The federal government considers the Super Bowl to be an “event of national significance.” A host of public safety and health activities are implemented during events of national significance. Our (ADHS) activities began with the Pro Bowl last weekend and finish after the Super Bowl on February 1. We have 3 primary functions: BioWatch and Suspicious [...]
Last week I wrote about the 5 measles cases that we had identified as part of the nationwide Disneyland outbreak. Four of the AZ cases were among an unvaccinated Pinal County family that had visited Disneyland. This week over 1000 contacts were identified among our now 7 measles cases. Here’s a quick summary: One of [...]
Arizona law requires kids to get certain vaccines in order to attend school unless a doctor signs a medical exemption form or a parent signs a religious or personal belief exemption form. There’s been an increasing number of parents who are signing personal belief exemption forms - putting herd mmunity at risk. Every year we [...]
Courtesy: Journal of Pediatrics Last week’s issue of the Journal Pediatrics sheds light on something that we see here in Arizona - that parental refusal and delay of childhood vaccines is clustered in certain communities. The study was done in California and found that the percentage of kids who were under-immunized increased from 8% [...]
