Please join me in welcoming Cara Christ, MD as our new Division of Licensing Services chief. Cara has agreed to share her talents as the new Assistant Director for Licensing as well as serving as the Agency Chief Medical Officer. Also, thanks a million to Colby Bower who's been doing an excellent job serving as interim director for licensing since Alan [...]
A new public health archive called CDC Stacks opened their on-line doors this week. CDC Stacks contains documents spanning the history of CDC from issue 1 of the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report to the most current CDC guidelines and recommendations. The library is at http://stacks.cdc.gov. Dig in- or at least put it in your Favorites.
Awhile back, our epidemiology and licensing team of disease detectives including Jason Lempp, Cara Christ, Vinita Oberoi, Jessica Rigler, Ken Komatsu, Kathy McCanna, Connie Belden, Ken Komatsu, and Shoana Anderson learned of a severe case of a Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) through our 24-hour disease reporting system. Our team quickly contacted the county public health department which immediately began an [...]
The CDC, along with HBO, The Institutes of Medicine and several private partners created a series of documentaries, called Weight of the Nation which aired last week, but you can still watch them all online. We wrote a feature about our own Matt Gainey- who made tremendous strides to change his health. Matt is just one [...]
CDC released their new National Action Plan for Preventing Child Injury this week. The goals of the National Action Plan are to raise awareness about the problem of child injuries and the effects on our nation, offer solutions by uniting stakeholders around a common set of goals and strategies, and mobilize action to reduce child [...]
Over the past several months our Public Health Emergency Preparedness team has been integrating 2 big federal disaster preparedness grants- the Public Health Emergency Preparedness program from the CDC and the Hospital Preparedness Program from HHS. The initiative involves coordinating emergency planning between healthcare facilities, local public health departments, emergency management agencies, tribal partners and [...]
CDC’s Field Services Office rolled out their Direct Assistance for Assigning CDC Field Staff to State, Tribal, Local, and Territorial Health Departments internet site this week. The website provides answers to frequently asked questions concerning the availability and appropriate use of direct assistance from CDC staff. The CDC wants to increase the number of their [...]
The CDC is kicking off a new national smoking cessation campaign today called “Tips from Former Smokers”. The new tobacco education campaign will begin airing today and will run nationally for 12 weeks. Ads include television, radio, billboard, magazine, newspaper, theater, and online placements. In addition, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and other channels will help spread [...]
Bloodstream infections that start because of a “central line” in a person’s body are among the most serious of all healthcare-associated infections- causing thousands of deaths each year and about $700M in added costs. The CDC estimates that there were about 41,000 infections like these U.S. hospitals last year… and 25% percent of patients who [...]
