2013 Arizona Health Status and Vital Statistics Report
Last week we published our Agency’s most popular annual report. It’s called the 2013 Arizona Health Status and Vital Statistics Report. Last year’s version got 2,000,000 hits! It gives our most granular public health information of the year including refined health statistics on pregnancies, births, reportable diseases, deaths, inpatient hospitalizations, emergency room visits, marriages, divorces and population for Arizona. The [...]
Reflections on Global Polio Eradication
For the last several years global public health has been coming down the home-stretch to eradicate Polio from the globe - making it the 3rd infectious disease to be eliminated - joining smallpox and rinderpest. Polio incidence has dropped 99% in the last 20 years…going from 350,000 cases in 1988 to only 279 cases so far in 2014. The final [...]
New Menu Nutrition Labels on the Way
Americans eat about one-third of their calories away from home - meaning that consumer information at restaurants are an important piece of information that folks need in order to make good choices. This week, the FDA took a big step that will eventually provide the public with information when they eat out. The new rules on nutrition labeling will go [...]
New AZ Opioid Prescribing Guidelines
Last week we proudly released new Arizona Opioid Prescribing Guidelines for Arizona clinicians. They’re a voluntary, consensus set of principles and best practices for prescribing opioids. The Guidelines were built using the expertise of practitioners from across Arizona including representatives from professional associations, health plans, academic institutions, federal healthcare providers, and many others. The new guidelines balance appropriate treatment of pain [...]
Council on Infectious Disease Preparedness and Response Preliminary Report Released
On October 21 Governor Brewer issued Executive Order 2014-08 establishing the Council on Infectious Disease Preparedness and Response. The Council was charged with developing and implementing a coordinated comprehensive plan to ensure Arizona's public health infrastructure is prepared for the potential outbreak of infectious diseases, such as the Ebola virus, influenza, enterovirus, tuberculosis, and other emerging infectious diseases, and can [...]
Thanks for Volunteering
A couple months back, I sent a note to staff letting you know about an opportunity to help out kids in our hood…students at Capitol Elementary School. Several of you volunteered and will be tutoring the kids a couple days a week in math and reading. As Winston Churchill said:, “We make a living by what we get, but we [...]