New Bacteria Takes the Stage
This week’s Vital Signs report shows that antibiotics are being overpowered by lethal germs called carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae or (CRE).These germs cause lethal infections in patients that get inpatient medical care in hospitals, long-term care facilities and nursing homes. In their normal forms, the germs- in the Enterobacteriaceae family (e.g. E. coli) are a normal part of our digestive system. However, some of them have evolved and become resistant to all or [...]
This Year’s Clothing Drive is Here
Spring is a good time to toss out stuff we don’t use anymore and do a little cleaning around the house. If that’s the case for you, we’re going to make it easy to get rid of the clothes and household goods you don’t need or want. A couple of years ago, we had people donate to the Interfaith Cooperative [...]
Palo Verde Nuclear Exercise
Today our preparedness team will participate in a drill (graded by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission) to test our response to a simulated radiation release from the Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station. The exercise simulates an event where people, food or drinking water could become contaminated in the very unlikely event that there were to be a release of radioactive materials into the atmosphere. [...]
Next Season’s Influenza Vaccine
Just as our influenza season winds down (and it is), it's time to plan for the next one. Every February the World Health Organization convenes a panel of experts to look at the most current data on the circulating flu strains from around the world and makes recommendations for the next season’s Northern Hemisphere flu vaccine. At this week’s meeting in [...]
Solve the Outbreak
Check out CDC’s new iPad App, Solve the Outbreak, which lets you pretend you’re a disease outbreak investigator in the world-class Epidemic Intelligence Service by solving outbreaks based on real-life. When new outbreaks happen, disease detectives are sent in to figure out how they started, before they can spread. You get to investigate the outbreak and make decisions about confirming cases [...]
Building a World-Class Trauma System
Four years ago- AZ didn’t really have a trauma system. We had 7 Level I (high-end) Trauma Centers… but that’s it. After 4 years and a full court press- we now have a decent trauma system that includes 31 trauma centers, (8 Level I, 4 Level III, and 19 Level IV (16 of the Level IVs are in rural Arizona). [...]