Recent events such as Hurricane Harvey have illustrated the importance of information sharing during a disaster response. Communication and coordination between first responders, health care facilities, emergency management, public health, and other responders is critical to protecting the health and well-being of disaster victims. After action reports and lessons learned from previous responses almost always [...]
Our HIV Surveillance Program has just released their 2017 Annual Report which includes data up through 2016. The number of people living with HIV in Arizona was 17,464 in 2016. This trend that has been slowly increasing over the last two decades partially due to enhanced treatments that lead to improved survival rates for people [...]
The Arizona State Loan Repayment Program provides loan repayment incentives to eligible health care providers who commit to serve in Arizona’s medically underserved communities. Up to $65,000 of loan repayment assistance is available for physicians and dentists in exchange for an initial two-year commitment to serve in federally designated Health Professional Shortage Areas in Arizona. [...]
Since 2002, ADHS has contracted with the Arizona Attorney General’s Office to conduct routine inspections of tobacco retailers to ensure that retailers are complying with the state prohibition on selling tobacco products to minors. Studies have shown that effective youth tobacco enforcement programs reduce the prevalence of youth smoking. Arizona has a dedicated team of [...]
Governor Ducey’s executive order declaring a public health emergency includes a requirement for the Arizona Department of Health Services (ADHS) to provide a report on findings and recommendations to the Governor by September 5, 2017. The emergency declaration will officially come to an end when the Governor accepts the report. In order to develop the [...]
Heart disease and stroke are among the leading causes of death and disability in the United States. In Arizona, heart disease is the leading cause of death. While we applaud the work of the many health care professionals who play a critical role in reducing heart disease and preventing stroke in the United States and [...]
Last year, our Bureau of Epidemiology and Disease Control launched its first mobile app for infectious diseases, the AZ infectious Disease Resource (IDAZ). We’re thrilled to announce that our mobile app team has partnered up with the Office of Injury Prevention to develop the second public health focused app, Healthy Kids AZ!  Healthy Kids AZ is a mobile app that [...]
When Governor Doug Ducey declared the opioid crisis a public health emergency, the Arizona Department of Health Services quickly activated a team of folks from throughout our Department to help staff the response. One of the tasks I gave the team was to research what other states are doing to reduce opioid deaths. Our team looked at [...]
This last session, the Legislature passed HB 2493, which establishes a new drug overdose mortality review process within the Arizona Department of Health Services. The new program will result in much more robust information on the circumstances surrounding all drug overdose deaths, identify preventable factors, and inform actions and policies to reduce future overdose deaths. [...]
The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) recently announced that the Yavapai County WIC Program was one of just six WIC Local Agencies throughout the United States to receive the Loving Support Gold Premier Award for providing exemplary breastfeeding services. The USDA Loving Support Award recognizes WIC Local Agencies operating a peer counseling program which [...]
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