Pinal County recently recorded this season’s first pediatric influenza death in Arizona. This heartbreaking news is a reminder that children younger than 5 who get influenza are among those at increased risk of complications including pneumonia, worsening of chronic conditions, encephalopathy, and sinus and ear infections. Quite simply, influenza is an unpredictable virus that can [...]
A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) study has found that the Omicron booster provided significant additional protection against symptomatic COVID-19 illness in people who had received at least two doses of a previous COVID-19 vaccine. The CDC notes that COVID-19 spread has increased during the last two winters. And Arizona cases have increased [...]
For most people who get COVID-19, isolation, rest, and following a doctor's advice leads back to full health within a few weeks, especially if you were up-to-date on vaccination. If you can't shake fatigue a month or more later, however, chances are you're among the millions of Americans facing long COVID. Also referred to as [...]
Even with COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations, and deaths declining in recent weeks, it's an inescapable fact that older individuals remain at greatest risk of severe outcomes should they be infected with the current Omicron BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants. In the past six months, 81% of Arizona's COVID-19 deaths have been among those 65 and older, while [...]
A new resource from ADHS aims to help everyone better understand the monkeypox outbreak affecting Arizona and other states. As of Aug. 6, Arizona had 118 reported cases of monkeypox, with most of those occurring in the Phoenix and Tucson areas. This rare viral infection, which had been rarely seen in people who hadn’t traveled [...]
The Omicron subvariant BA.5 accounts for a rapidly growing share of sequenced cases in Arizona — 53% during the week ending July 2 and likely even higher today. Evidence suggests that this version of the virus that causes COVID-19 is better at eluding immune protection offered by vaccination or previous infection. It’s understandable to be [...]
Since COVID-19 vaccines became available in late 2020, millions of Arizonans have gone to mass-vaccination sites, retail pharmacies, health care centers, doctors’ offices, and elsewhere to get lifesaving shots. Today, ADHS and partner agencies are providing even more widespread availability by making COVID-19 vaccines available in neighborhoods through trusted community partners. More than 100,000 doses [...]
Like COVID-19 has proven to be, seasonal influenza is predictably unpredictable. Case in point: Arizona is currently seeing increasing numbers of influenza cases much later than the five-year average shows, though overall numbers for this flu season aren’t as high as some recent seasons. Other states are seeing a similar trend. COVID-19 and influenza share [...]
Vaccinated against COVID-19? Great. Boosted on top of your COVID-19 vaccination? Even better. Our report on COVID-19 outcomes by vaccination status, which now includes data for March, shows that compared to individuals who were fully vaccinated with a booster, unvaccinated people ages 12 and older had: 4.3 times the risk of testing positive for COVID-19; [...]
You want to feel safe. You want your family to be safe. Are vaccines safe? The simple and important answer is: Oh my yes! What you want to know too is if vaccines actually work, right? The World Health Organization has an answer: “With the exception of clean, safe drinking water, no human endeavor rivals [...]
