Arizona Department of Health Services, Director’s Blog

We’re Celebrating Falls Prevention Awareness Month

iStock_000008005628LargeSeptember is National Falls Prevention Month and in Arizona Governor Doug Ducey has issued a proclamation calling for community partnerships to promote a falls free Arizona. Our most recent data from 2015 shows more than half of falls-related hospitalizations end up in skilled nursing facilities. People 85 and older have the […]

By | September 1st, 2016|Prevention|Comments Off on We’re Celebrating Falls Prevention Awareness Month

PANS/PANDAS: Now there’s a Treatment Center of Excellence

Silhouette of Mother and Young Children Holding Hands at SunsetIn the 1980s, a subset of children were noted to have an abrupt onset of obsessive-compulsive disorder, along with neuropsychiatric symptoms triggered by an infection of some kind. This lead to the development of diagnoses of PANS (Pediatric acute-onset neuropsychiatric syndrome) […]

By | August 31st, 2016|General|Comments Off on PANS/PANDAS: Now there’s a Treatment Center of Excellence

Arizona Celebrates Success and Continues Statewide Zika Preparedness Activities

CaptureSince February, public health, health care, and vector control partners have been working together to prepare for and protect Arizona communities against Zika virus. One of our recent accomplishments was the Arizona Zika Action Plan Summit, held on May 24th, 2016.

The summit aimed to share our current knowledge about […]

By | August 30th, 2016|Preparedness|Comments Off on Arizona Celebrates Success and Continues Statewide Zika Preparedness Activities

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


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 […]

By | August 26th, 2016|Preparedness|1 Comment

One Health Champions in the Making

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 of […]

By | August 25th, 2016|Preparedness|Comments Off on One Health Champions in the Making

Arizona Youth Begin the Annual Hunt for Mosquitoes

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 […]

By | August 24th, 2016|Preparedness|Comments Off on Arizona Youth Begin the Annual Hunt for Mosquitoes