Accreditation Gaining Momentum
We’re fully committed to achieving national public health accreditation and are well on our way. Accreditation will bring us a gold star for the work we’re doing to meet the ten essential public health standards and will validate our collaborative relationships with our partners and our governing body. Our efforts are led by a steering committee made up of our [...]
Doctor Shortage – a Public Health Concern
Public Health tracks the number of healthcare workers – physicians, dentists and psychiatrists – to make sure we have enough to take care of the community. In Arizona we’ve been challenged to recruit and keep those professionals – and we have numerous Health Professional Shortage Areas. Just to eliminate the current shortages, we’d need an additional 313 primary care physicians, [...]
50 Years of Newborn Screening
Last year we welcomed about 87,000 newborns to Arizona. Our Newborn Screening Program (in our State Lab) ensures that each are tested for 28 inherited disorders and hearing problems. The goal is to help kids avoid illness, developmental delays and even death. Teamwork, communication and coordination are critical in making this program effective. A quick look at the numbers reveals [...]
CDC’s Public Health Associate Program
Do you know a young adult that might be interested in a career in the exciting field of public health? If you do, they may be in luck. The Public Health Associate Program administered by CDC is designed to identify future public health leaders with undergraduate degrees and a passion for public health. Throughout the 2 year program- associates get [...]
Studying Vaccine Choice
As I mentioned in a blog post a few weeks ago, more AZ parents are choosing not to vaccinate their kids- and using “personal exemptions” when they enroll their kids in school. If the trend continues, we could jeopardize our immunization rates enough so that we'd see long gone diseases like measles and mumps return in AZ. In order to figure [...]
Influenza Still Increasing in AZ
Yesterday afternoon's weekly flu report shows that influenza is still circulating widely in AZ... with a steep increase in the last couple of weeks. The strain that’s circulating is mostly Type A - H3N2 which can be more severe than the 2009 H1N1, especially for seniors. There are plenty of B strains going around too. But you can still find a vaccine through Stop the [...]