How infectious is Ebola?
Epidemiologists (aka disease investigators) use a number of tools to estimate the contagiousness and spread of a disease. One such tool is the R0 (R nought), which represents the average number of people one sick person will infect. It's calculated by estimating the chances of exposure, number of susceptible persons, length of contagious period, how the disease spreads, and how much time [...]
Ebola Toolkits
One of the roles we play in any outbreak is making sure that our partners in the state have all the information they need to respond to a situation and be safe in that response. I’ve posted about our continuing education of those partners, but now we’ve created a one-page stop for partner. Our Ebola Preparedness website contains all the [...]
Is Your Healthcare Facility Ready for Ebola?
Two Ebola virus disease cases have been identified among healthcare workers in Texas, underscoring the importance of maintaining strict adherence to infection control precautions when working with Ebola patients. We know that the general public in the US isn't at risk - but we also know that healthcare workers have the highest risk. The good news is that the risk of transmission can be dramatically reduced as long as certain [...]
Ebola Preparedness: Public Health Priorities
As Ebola cases continue to rise worldwide and in the US, ADHS is redoubling our efforts to ensure Arizona's healthcare and public health systems are prepared to respond to potential Ebola cases. Right now, our top priorities are ensuring the rapid identification and prompt isolation of cases in order to reduce disease spread to healthcare workers and close contacts of the patient. [...]
Plague over the Centuries
Ring around the roseies, A pocket full of posies, Ashes, ashes! We all fall down! In 1348, London was 4 million strong, but within 2.5 years a third of those had “fallen down.” The streets were narrow and cramped, often piled ankle deep with human and animal waste. The putrid smell contaminated everything in the city. Those infected with the [...]
New Draft Medical Marijuana Regulations Out for Public Comment
For the last few months we’ve been reviewing our medical marijuana rules to make changes to them in response to an Arizona Superior Court judge’s decision. In addition to the changes needed to comply with the Court’s ruling, also proposing other changes to the medical marijuana rules that affect qualifying patients, caregivers, and dispensaries that include: Reducing the fees for [...]