Healthcare-associated infections are a critical challenge to public health in Arizona. Healthcare associated infections are acquired during healthcare treatment and can be devastating and even deadly- importantly, they’re preventable. At any given time, about 1 in 20 patients have an infection while receiving healthcare treatment in U.S. hospitals, causing up to $33B in excess medical [...]
For some reason human nature drives us to fear unknown, strange, and seemingly unpredictable hazards more than the commonplace hazards that we face day to day, even though the everyday hazards are a far more important public health risk. Accidents and injuries are a good example. Accidents and injuries are hands-down the number 1 killer [...]
All of us are exposed to natural radiation on a daily basis. It mostly comes from space (called cosmic rays) as well as natural radioactive materials found in the soil, water and air. People can also be exposed to radiation from human-made sources like X-ray machines. Radiation doses are usually measured in units called milli-Sieverts. On [...]
Good news this time. The number of bloodstream infections in intensive care unit patients with central lines decreased by 58% over the last 10 years according to a new CDC Vital Signs report. This decrease saved 27,000 lives and $1.8B in excess health care costs. Bloodstream infections in patients with central lines can be deadly, [...]
The name of the game for Public Health Prevention in 2011 is integration and leverage. Our Public Health Prevention Team will be focusing on the social determinants of health and working to implement policies, systems and environmental changes that make the healthy choices easy. Here are some examples of our public health prevention priorities for the [...]
Arizona got a great public health preparedness report card from the CDC this week, getting a solid A by scoring 30/32. The report (Public Health Preparedness: Strengthening the Nation’s Emergency Response State by State) examines each state’s readiness using 32 criteria designed to drive states toward demonstrating results, measuring their program improvements and increasing accountability. [...]
Arizona got a great public health preparedness report card from the CDC this week, getting a solid A by scoring 30/32. The report (Public Health Preparedness: Strengthening the Nation’s Emergency Response State by State) examines each state’s readiness using 32 criteria designed to drive states toward demonstrating results, measuring their program improvements and increasing accountability. [...]
Cooked all the way through, I hope. I’m certain that you heard about the national egg recall this month. I’ll try to put it in perspective. Epidemiologists across the country and at the CDC found a nationwide outbreak of Salmonella that has made a few hundred people sick. The investigation found that people that ate [...]
You probably think I sound like a broken record because I’m always writing about obesity… but it really is the dominant public health issue of our time. Last week, the CDC released its latest Vital Signs report called "State-Specific Obesity Prevalence Among Adults – United States, 2009,"… which finds that nine states had an obesity [...]
Each year in the US there are 1.7 million health care associated infections that cause approximately 99,000 deaths in US hospitals. There are lots of germs that can cause health care associated infections, but 16% are in the really bad category because they’re resistant to antibiotics. These multidrug-resistant organisms pose huge problems once they get [...]
