We Are On the Right Track with Vaccine Exemptions
As we kick off our annual Immunization Conference this week, we have some exciting news to share. The proportion of children exempt from vaccines in Arizona continues to decrease slightly compared to last year. Every year, state and local public health staff work with schools to gather immunization and coverage reports for children enrolled in childcare, kindergarten, and sixth grade [...]
ADHS Reaches Important Accreditation Milestone
Our Core Accreditation Team has been working on preparing thousands of pages of documentation to submit to the Public Health Accreditation Board (PHAB), and we met our targeted date of March 31st. This would not have happened without the effort of our staff from across the department who provided the Core Accreditation Team with examples, documents, and details up until the final day. The [...]
Preparing AZ for Zika Virus
On April 1st, a delegation of state and local public health professionals from Arizona joined up with experts across the county at CDC's Zika Action Plan Summit in Atlanta. Arizona has already done quite a bit in preparation for the arrival of Zika virus in Arizona, including developing response plans, meeting monthly with state and local partners to ensure statewide [...]
April 10 through 16 is the National Week of the Young Child
The Week of the Young Child™ is an annual celebration sponsored by the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) that celebrates early learning, young children (birth through age 8), their teachers, and families. The purpose of this weeklong event is to focus public attention on the needs of young children and their families and to recognize the early childhood [...]
National Public Health Week: Together We Can Build Safe, Healthy Communities
Where you live, learn, work, and play affects your health. Your opportunity to engage in healthy behaviors can be strongly impacted by the built environment around you, such as your home and neighborhood. There are some barriers that our public health system in Arizona is working to identify and develop strategies improve our communities. Thirty-five million homes in America that [...]
The Vital Statistics “Big Book” Report Published Online
The 2014 Arizona Health Status and Vital Statistics Report, also known as the “Big Book,” presents an annual update of information on vital statistics and the health status of Arizona residents. It provides statewide number and rates of vital events such as births, stillbirths and deaths, and population-based data on pregnancies, abortions, marriages, divorces, reportable diseases, and hospital discharges. This report [...]