Preparedness

/Preparedness

Items in the Preparedness category will cover everything from Emergency Medical Services to vaccination programs. This division at ADHS tracks contagious disease, coordinates emergency preparedness activity, licenses EMTs and Paramedics, regulates ambulance companies, authorizes special hospital designations like cardiac care center and Level IV trauma center, issues birth and death certificates, and tracks critical health data through various sources including hospital discharge information.

Arizona Exercise Focusing on Planning for Pediatric Safety Featured on National Website


By | August 26th, 2016|Preparedness|

This month, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services highlights a December 2015 Arizona preparedness collaboration between ADHS, the Arizona Pediatric Disaster Coalition and Arizona schools. We conducted an emergency preparedness exercise to improve the relationship between hospitals and schools in order to streamline emergency care for vulnerable pediatric populations. Using a whole community [...]

One Health Champions in the Making

By | August 25th, 2016|Preparedness|

More than 40 high school students gathered on August 16 for an interactive One Health Career Exploration Day to learn about the connection between human, animal, and environmental health. The event was led by representatives from the Vector-borne & Zoonotic Disease Program and Food Safety Program at the Arizona Department of Health Services, Maricopa County Department [...]

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Arizona Youth Begin the Annual Hunt for Mosquitoes

By | August 24th, 2016|Preparedness|

The Arizona Department of Health Services, Maricopa County Department of Public Health, and the University of Arizona will kick-off the second Great Arizona Mosquito Hunt this week. The Great Arizona Mosquito Hunt began as a collaborative project in 2015 to teach high school students about mosquito biology and emerging mosquito-borne diseases, such as dengue, chikungunya, [...]

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Do you have a preteen or teen? Protect their future with vaccines.

By | August 23rd, 2016|Preparedness|

As parents, we know making sure our kids eat healthy, are physically active, get plenty of sleep, and have regular physicals is crucial to their overall health. But did you also you know preteen and teens need vaccines that protect against serious and potentially life-threatening diseases like meningitis, whooping cough and cancers caused by the [...]

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Take Precautions to Protect your Family and Pets from Rabies

By | August 18th, 2016|Preparedness|

Rabies is a virus spread by the bite of or contact with saliva of an infected animal. The disease causes damage to the nervous system and causes death once symptoms appear. In Arizona, bats, skunks, and foxes are the main sources of rabies. Rabies is not uncommon in Arizona wildlife, and the virus occurs naturally [...]

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Keep Your Family Safe from Disease while Swimming

By | August 17th, 2016|Preparedness|

The Maricopa County Department of Public Health recently issued a press release alerting the community of a parasitic illness called Cryptosporidiosis, or Crypto, that was linked to recreational water facilities in the county. Since June 1, 2016, 131 confirmed and probable cases of Crypto have been reported statewide, from multiple counties. Historically, an average of 11.6 [...]

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A Healthy Start: Reasons to Vaccinate Your Young Children

By | August 16th, 2016|Preparedness|

Immunization gives parents the safe, proven power to protect their children from 14 serious and potentially deadly diseases before they turn two years old. To celebrate the importance of immunizations for a healthy start and throughout our lives, and to make sure children are protected with all the vaccines they need, we continue to join [...]

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Using Technology to More Effectively Manage Outbreaks

By | August 15th, 2016|Preparedness|

In Arizona, outbreaks are reported and managed by local public health departments using a module in our electronic disease surveillance system, MEDSIS. Outbreak Module’s integration into MEDSIS allows users to easily link existing infectious disease cases to an outbreak and retrieve outbreak data for analysis.  The data collected in this module has replaced our paper-based outbreak [...]

A Healthy Start: Pregnancy and Vaccines

By | August 12th, 2016|Preparedness|

As we continue our recognition of August as National Immunization Awareness Month, we want to take this week to remind pregnant women about the importance of immunizations to protect themselves and their babies. During pregnancy, you are often thinking about baby names, nursery colors, and prenatal vitamins, but you should also be thinking about vaccines. Vaccines [...]

Largest measles outbreak of the year… so far

By | August 9th, 2016|Preparedness|

For the past three months, state and local public health disease detectives have been working tirelessly to bring an end to the measles outbreak originating from a private detention facility in Eloy, Arizona. This week, the outbreak is officially closed. A total of 22 cases have been reported during this three month outbreak, all of [...]

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