February National Health Observances: Heart Health, Teen Dating, Girls & Women in Sports, and Black HIV/AIDS Awareness
Each month, the Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion (ODPH) features select National Health Observances (NHOs) that highlight issues affecting health across the nation. For February, they are raising awareness about heart health, teen dating violence, girls & women in sports, and Black HIV/AIDS awareness. To make it easy for you to join the conversation, they provide resources,...
PHCC Answers to Tough Questions: COVID-19 Emergency Declarations
Last week, the Biden administration announced that it plans to end the COVID-19 national emergency declarations on May 11, 2023. Health departments, health care providers, community organizations, and others may receive questions about what this means for their constituents. Public health leaders might also be asked for their opinion about whether President Biden’s policy announcement was the r...
Viruses Hit 4 in 10 U.S. Households in Recent Weeks
It’s been a rough spell for Americans laid low by respiratory bugs, with almost 4 in 10 households reporting someone fell ill with COVID, flu, or RSV from the December holidays through mid-January. The most recent KFF COVIDVaccine Monitor found someone had the flu in 27% of households, 15% had COVID, and 10% had RSV. Nearly three years after COVID first hit, most people (69%) are “not too” or “...
CDC's State of Vaccine Confidence Report
The CDC has published the 2022 Quarter 3 State of Vaccine Confidence Report which identifies the public’s questions, concerns, frustrations, and circulating misinformation about vaccines with the potential to impact vaccine confidence. Major themes identified from social media, news, and other sources that may impact vaccine confidence: consumers continue to have questions about the availabilit...
Hear Her: New Campaign Segment Centering on American Indian and Alaska Native Voices
The CDC, in partnership with HHS Office of Minority Health and CDC Foundation, with support from Merck for Mothers, has released a new segment of the Hear Her campaign featuring culturally appropriate resources for American Indian and Alaska Native communities. As the Hear Her campaign continues, they share the stories of American Indian women who experienced pregnancy-related complications as ...
Vital Signs: Black and Hispanic Patients on Dialysis Have Higher Rates of Staph Bloodstream Infections
Patients with failing kidneys who need regular dialysis treatments still have sky-high rates of dangerous staph infections in their blood compared with people who don’t need these treatments, according to a new Vital Signs report from the CDC. Rates of infection are particularly high among people who are Black or Hispanic or who have a lower socioeconomic status, the report said. These bloodstr...
Op-Ed: The FDA’s New ‘Don’t Say Gay’ Policy for Blood Donation
For decades now, gay men have been barred from giving blood. Last week, the FDA put out a new and more inclusive plan: Sexually active gay and bisexual people would be permitted to donate so long as they have not recently engaged in anal sex with new or multiple partners. Assistant Secretary for Health Rachel Levine, the first Senate-confirmed transgender official in the U.S., issued a statemen...
The Nurses Strike in New York City and Public Health Implications
Complaints of staff shortages, spending cuts, and compromised working conditions in the nursing profession are not new. However, the COVID-19 pandemic and the rise of contagious infections have compounded the current strain on hospitals and other facilities. The three-day nurses’ strike in New York City last January was just one of many recent labor struggles in the healthcare sector. The incre...
Marijuana-Linked ER Visits by Seniors Are Rising
New research out of California finds seniors are being treated in emergency rooms in significantly higher numbers for adverse side effects from cannabis consumption. Researchers from the University of California, San Diego said they studied the issue because they noticed more primary care patients ending up in the ER after using marijuana products. While people 65 and up were involved in only 3...
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