For more than 20 years, public health advocates and clinical practitioners have been meeting in the Southwest to talk about what's new in TB and HIV. Earlier this month, Arizona’s public health and clinical representatives joined our federal and four-corner-state counterparts in Durango, Colorado. At this 21st conference, presentations ran the gamut from TB case [...]
Our HIV Prevention Program in the Bureau of Tobacco and Chronic Disease launched Arizona's first statewide HIV prevention media campaign in late October. The media campaign uses the tagline “Its Only Dangerous When You Don’t Know It’s There” and is designed to positively promote and support HIV-related public health and safety. The campaign features people running [...]
In 2013 the Oklahoma State Department of Health was notified of a potential hepatitis outbreak associated with poor infection prevention practices in a dental office in Tulsa. This spurred testing of more than 4,000 patients who could have been exposed to hepatitis and HIV. When the investigation concluded, it marked the first documented spread of [...]
CDC’s 2013 Prevention Status Reports have just been released publicly on CDC’s website. You’ll find reports specific to Arizona on topics like nutrition, physical activity, teen pregnancy, tobacco use, HIV, heart disease, motor vehicle crashes, and prescription drug abuse. Reports include a few data indicators of how we compare to the U.S., as well as [...]
Every year our most popular annual report (it’s not even close) is called the Arizona Health Status and Vital Statistics Annual Report. We released the 2012 Arizona Health Status and Vital Statistics Annual Report this week- and this time it’s mobile friendly so can pull it up on your IPad, IPhone and other Android devices. The document contains hotlinks and [...]
A new report from the CDC shows some good news for older adults in Arizona. According to the report, people in Arizona have a life expectancy of more than 20 years after the age of 65, with 15 of those years healthy. This places Arizona as one of the top states in the nation for [...]
In last week’s update, I discussed the impact of federal sequestration to the main agencies who award us funding. We’re expecting a 5% reduction to our funding for the AIDS Drug Assistance Program, a program that provides access to HIV/AIDS medications for patients with limited or no insurance coverage. We should be OK in this [...]
The world's first AIDS Walk was developed by Craig Miller in 1984 during the height of the AIDS epidemic. Seeing the need for immediate action in response to this public-health emergency, he drew on his experience as a political and community organizer, combining grassroots activism with fundraising and other campaign strategies to raise both awareness and urgently needed funds [...]
Every so often- you run into a resource guide that stands above the rest. I discovered one of those a couple of weeks ago when I was at a conference with the people in my job from around the country. It’s called the Guide to Community Preventive Services – and it’s a free resource to [...]
Several prevention-related health services will be covered without cost sharing in new health plans as of a couple of weeks ago as a result of the Affordable Care Act. The changes are designed to help lower costs and outcomes for a variety of preventative women’s services. Previously, some insurance companies didn't cover some of the [...]
