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| January 22, 2013- In This Issue |
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Home
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Chief of Staff Forecasts Priorities |
DPH Worker Sheds 25 Pounds |
Mandatory Flu Shots |
Young Black Males at Risk |
CDC's FluView App
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PHNEWS |
PHRECIPE |
PHTRAINING |
PHEVENTS
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DPH Chief of Staff Jamie Howgate
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For the
Georgia Department of Public Health (DPH), 2012 was an
important year, the first one DPH operated as a stand-alone
department. But if 2012 was a year of transition, 2013 will
be a year of transformation and innovation, said Jamie
Howgate, DPH chief of staff.
Howgate said
the successes and challenges faced during 2012 shaped the
department's outlook for 2013.
"We have our
programs and our processes in place. Now we're going to
focus on becoming the public health department that Georgia
needs us to be," he said.
A major part
of that effort is focused on improving health outcomes in
DPH's four priority areas: childhood obesity, immunization,
infant mortality and tobacco cessation. DPH will continue to
fight those problems through programs like those that target
the state's infant mortality rate, which fell from 8.1 per
1,000 live births in 2006 to 6.3 per 1,000 live births in
2012. The department also will continue its commitment to
Georgia SHAPE, Gov. Nathan Deal's initiative to combat
obesity by improving the fitness and health of the state's
children.
Howgate
praised the leadership of DPH Commissioner Dr. Brenda
Fitzgerald and said he is dedicated to putting her vision
for the department into action.
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Martina Rowe, clinical laboratory technologist
for the
Georgia Department of Public Health. |
When 90 employees with the Georgia Department of Public
Health joined the Holiday Survivor Challenge to lose
weight or just maintain, clinical laboratory
technologist Martina Rowe, in the Virology Unit at the
Georgia Public Health Laboratory, was front and center.
Rowe had
struggled with yo-yo dieting most of her life, losing
pounds only to gain them back.
"As a
child I weighed some 200 pounds from elementary school
through middle school," said Rowe. "During my high
school years I became more aware of my weight and tried
to lose weight mostly by starving myself. I was unable
to participate in any physical activities because of my
obesity."
Rowe's
bad food choices contributed to her weight gain, as many
of her meals contained excessive quantities of fat,
sugar and salt.
"My meals
at home consisted of fried foods, potatoes, breads, and
mostly sweet treats," recalled Rowe. "As a mother, I
continued to eat these same foods after giving birth to
my twin boys."
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January
is the peak of flu season in Georgia, and this year,
hospitals, doctors' offices and local health departments
have been inundated with people sick with the flu or
those clamoring for a flu shot.
But
according to federal data, only about 63 percent of U.S.
health care workers got flu shots by November 2012. That
number is higher than in recent years, but it's well
below the 90 percent of vaccination federal officials
say is necessary for optimal patient safety.
Many
health care groups say the best way to bump up those low
vaccination rates is to make flu shots mandatory for
health care workers. In November, the National
Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO)
issued a policy statement advocating for mandatory flu
vaccinations for health care workers and local health
departments. The organization said people at higher risk
for flu and complications from the virus have frequent
contact with health care workers, and vaccination is the
most effective way to prevent flu from spreading in
these situations.
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Diana G. Murro, a fourth-year
student at Medical College of Georgia and first author
of the study in the journal "Pediatric Nephrology." |
Increased levels
of the hormone aldosterone in young black males correlate with
an unhealthy chain of events that starts with retaining too much
salt and results in an enlarged heart muscle, researchers say.
The findings
indicate physicians may want to reach for aldosterone inhibitors
early in their effort to control blood pressure and reduce
cardiovascular risk in young black males.
Their studies of
a cohort of 191 healthy black and white 15- to 19-year-olds
showed that only in the black males was higher aldosterone
associated with impaired sodium excretion, increased blood
pressure and enlargement of the left pumping chamber of the
heart, said Dr. Gregory A. Harshfield, hypertension researcher
at the Medical College of Georgia and Institute of Public and
Preventive Health at Georgia Health Sciences University.
"It's a clear
pathway and is consistent with the idea that is the highest risk
group for developing earlier and more severe cases of
hypertension," Harshfield said. Increased sodium makes the body
hold on to more fluid, which increases blood pressure. Unhealthy
enlargement of the pumping chamber of the heart, called left
ventricular hypertrophy, results from the heart having to work
too hard against high blood pressures to push blood and oxygen
out to the body. Harshfield's studies have shown that black
males particularly have a problem with blood pressure returning
to normal following stress because of an impaired ability to
eliminate sodium.
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With the
CDC's FluView app for iPhone, you can explore Influenza-Like
Illness (ILI) activity levels across the U.S., view ILI
trends over several weeks and get on-demand access to state
health department websites for local surveillance
information.
One of seven FluView surveillance components is to track
information received from the U.S. Outpatient Influenza-like
Illness Surveillance Network (ILINet). This application
displays ILI activity levels based on the percent of
outpatient visits in a jurisdiction due to ILI compared to
the average percent of ILI visits that occur during weeks
with little or no influenza virus circulation (non-influenza
weeks).
ILINet
consists of more than 3,000 health care providers in all 50
states, the District of Columbia and the U.S. Virgin Islands
reporting more than 30 million patient visits each year.
Click
here
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PHRECIPE |
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Home
|
Chief of Staff Forecasts Priorities |
DPH Worker Sheds 25 Pounds |
Mandatory Flu Shots |
Young Black Males at Risk |
CDC's FluView App
|
PHNEWS |
PHRECIPE |
PHTRAINING |
PHEVENTS
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