Public health is always hard at work identifying and solving outbreaks. In the case of foodborne diseases, public health epidemiologists, nurses, and lab scientists are teaming up at local, state and federal levels to find out what food made people sick. When two or more people with the same foodborne disease get sick from the [...]
Public health officials regularly explore new and creative ways to promote health and wellness for Arizonans. On Saturday November 5, our staff and Maricopa County Department of Public Health (MCDPH) join in a new partnership with the Phoenix Zoo to host a free flu vaccine clinic accompanied with outreach on disease prevention. Last year’s flu [...]
With Easter right around the corner, little ones in Arizona may be coming into contact with baby chicks or ducklings at festivals, egg hunts, or petting zoos. While these baby birds are cute, they are also common carriers of Salmonella bacteria . Salmonella bacteria can cause infections in people, with symptoms including diarrhea, fever, and [...]
When you get sick with an infectious disease like Salmonella or the flu, your healthcare provider or the laboratory that conducted the test on you is required to report your illness to the county or state public health department. In Arizona, almost 100 different diseases are reportable. Public health disease detectives investigate reports of diseases [...]
This is the time of year when we start closing out all of our infectious disease data from the previous year. That means our epidemiology and data entry staff will be hard at work to identify potential duplicate cases, make sure reported disease cases are classified correctly and similarly between the state and local health [...]
Every day our staff works with local public health and healthcare partners to prepare for and respond to all kinds of public health threats. Looking back at 2015, we addressed infectious disease threats like Ebola, measles, chikungunya, and Salmonella; environmental threats like wildfires, monsoons, and floods; and potential health security threats at Superbowl XLIX. This work [...]
Public health preparedness is critical to ensure rapid and effective response to emergencies, outbreaks, and disasters. For the last several years, CDC has released a national snapshot of states’ performance on key public health indicators. As we’ve seen year over year, Arizona continues to score high marks on preparedness. Like last year, this year we [...]
There has been on average 24 multistate outbreaks reported each year since 2010, each involving two to 37 states. In Arizona, just in the last few months, we have helped investigate several notable multistate outbreaks including: Salmonella associated with cucumbers, raw ground tuna and a truffle and mushroom product. Teamwork is crucial to a rapid [...]
Our epidemiologists and food safety specialists have been hard at work, alongside partners at the county health departments, CDC, and FDA to investigate a large national Salmonella outbreak. As of today, a total of 66 cases of Salmonella Poona have been reported in 6 counties in Arizona. Many of these cases (75%) are in children [...]
Last month we wrapped up our 6th annual Arizona Infectious Disease Training and Exercise (AZID), a three-day event with more than 400 attendees learning about various infectious disease topics. This year’s event embraced the One Health theme, which recognizes the connection of human health with the health of animals and the environment. The event kicked [...]
