Sugar-Sweetened Beverages and Our Kids
For years, it has been recommended that everyone consume less sugar. New information from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention gives a clear picture of just how much sugar our kids are getting from sugar-sweetened beverages. Almost two-thirds of the young ones and teens (ages 2 through 19 years) are drinking at least one sugar-sweetened beverage each day and [...]
Take Steps to Lower Your Risk for Heart Disease
A top priority for our department is to develop prevention programs, services and public education campaigns that help Arizona families make choices that will improve their health and wellness. A major focus of many of our initiatives is preventing heart disease. Heart disease is the leading cause of death for both women and men in the United States. While heart [...]
Anatomy of a Foodborne Disease Outbreak Investigation
Public health is always hard at work identifying and solving outbreaks. In the case of foodborne diseases, public health epidemiologists, nurses, and lab scientists are teaming up at local, state and federal levels to find out what food made people sick. When two or more people with the same foodborne disease get sick from the same source, we have an [...]
Sharing Information about the State of Infectious Disease in Arizona
Our Healthcare-Associated Infections (HAI) program works with various partners to improve patient safety across Arizona. On January 20th, the HAI program collaborated with the local Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology Grand Canyon Chapter (APIC) to host their annual State of the State meeting. This event took place at Health Services Advisory Group and was attended by more than 70 infection preventionists and other [...]
ADHS Lead Program Rings in the New Year with a New Surveillance System
In Arizona, healthcare providers identify hundreds of children each year with elevated blood lead levels, which our Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention Program (CLPPP) monitors. Although there is no safe blood lead level, interventions are initiated at blood lead levels ≥ 5 µg/dL, the CDC reference value. When a child is identified with elevated blood lead levels, CLPPP will coordinate with [...]
Early Detection of Breast and Cervical Cancer is Critical to Helping Women Beat the Diseases
Cancer is the leading cause of death in our state. According to the most recent data from the Arizona Cancer Registry, 11,642 Arizonans lost their lives to cancer in 2015. We offer several programs and public education campaigns to help raise awareness about cancer prevention, and to help people get screening and treatment for certain types of cancer. One of [...]