Brenda Fitzgerald, M.D., DPH commissioner.

During July's Board of Public Health meeting, Brenda Fitzgerald, M.D., commissioner of the Georgia Department of Public Health (DPH), praised the department and the board for the incredible work done in the department's first year as a standalone agency.

After sharing the department's many accomplishments with the board, she outlined the work still necessary to continue making the state safer and healthier, focusing on what she calls the department's four core areas: obesity, tobacco cessation, HIV/AIDS and immunizations.

She then outlined five additional areas on which she wants DPH to focus.
 
The first area she highlighted was telemedicine and teledentistry. She shared that by December of this year, every district (outside of the metro Atlanta area) would have telemedicine capabilities, which is a great accomplishment. Fitzgerald expressed the need to ensure those capabilities continue to expand so that more and more Georgians, especially those in rural areas, have access to healthcare. 

   

  

With the funding support of the Georgia Healthy Communities Initiative, the Gwinnett Health Department conducted a "Faith Gardens to Healthy Food Access Workshop" in June at Covenant Fellowship International Church in Dacula.

Approximately 25 people from three churches, in addition to Covenant Fellowship International, were represented at the workshop: The Temple of Glory, Snellville United Methodist and Buford First United Methodist. K. Rashid Nuri of the Truly Living Well Center for Urban Agriculture in Atlanta was the workshop leader. Nuri started the workshop by asking the participants what they wanted to learn. He then responded to all questions while using his experiences and the operation of the Truly Living Well Center as examples to illustrate his responses.
 

Jeffrey Bale taught at a school in Okanguati, Namibia, as a Peace Corps volunteer. He is seen here with students outside of the school grounds in Namibia.

National pollster John Zogby describes Georgia Department of Public Health intern Jeffrey Bale's generation as "first globals."

Zogby's data show that two out of three of the "first globals" will own passports, travel the world and connect via social networks to global communities.  Bale has done just that, expanding his worldview through travels to Honduras, Peru, Chile, Zambia, Malawi, Tanzania and Namibia.

Bale is expanding his public health experiences as an intern in the Epidemiology Section through the Georgia Department of Public Health's (DPH) Office of Training and Workforce Development (OTWD) State Intern and Volunteer Program.

"Jeff Bale is carrying out most of the activities associated with our Adolescent Immunization Study," said Rebecca M. Willis, MHS, immunization study epidemiologist. "This is the first year DPH is conducting an adolescent study, so Jeff is inventing the wheel, so to speak.  He will be doing a lot of data collection, data analysis and report writing. This is a very exciting opportunity for DPH because adolescent immunization is the current hot topic in immunization programs across the U.S.  It will be great to have some adolescent data for reporting and program planning in Georgia."
 
 

Biao He, Professor, Department of Infectious Diseases, Infectious Diseases, Department of Faculty of Infectious Diseases, UGA

Mumps may seem like a disease of a bygone era to many people in the U.S. who, thanks to immunization programs, have been spared the fever, aches and characteristic swollen jawline of the once common viral infection. Biao He, a University of Georgia professor of infectious diseases and a Georgia Research Alliance distinguished investigator in the College of Veterinary Medicine, worries that a new strain of the virus is spreading, and it could lead to the widespread reintroduction of mumps. Now, thanks in part a $1.8 million grant from the National Institutes of Health, He and his team are working on a new vaccine to stop it.

Although not typically a life-threatening disease, mumps can lead to serious health problems such as viral meningitis, hearing loss and pancreatitis; and it can cause miscarriage during early pregnancy.

Vaccinations diminished the number of cases dramatically, and at one point it appeared that the U.S. was on pace to eradicate the disease. But two large outbreaks of the virus in 2006 and 2010 involving thousands of confirmed cases in the Midwest and Northeast put the hope of eradication on hold. He is concerned that the current vaccine, which has been in use since 1967, may be showing signs of weakness.