PH Program Finds New Inspiration
 

WIC Participant Shares Story at State WIC Meeting  

Naomi Shepard, WIC peer counselor and former WIC client

She began slowly and deliberately.  "My name is Naomi Shepard.  I'm a former WIC client and a current WIC peer counselor." And the room fell silent.

   

Almost a hundred staff with Georgia's Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) from across the state were half way through a 2-day symposium aimed at making the program more robust.  They had already discussed operation and communications goals.  They had already discussed successes.  And then they heard from Naomi Shepard.

   

 

DeKalb "Moves" to End Obesity  

DeKalb County is the only community in Georgia awarded federal Communities Putting Prevention to Work (CPPW) funds for strategies to prevent children in Georgia from living sicker, shorter lives than their parents due to obesity-related diseases. Obesity is caused primarily by poor diet and lack of physical activity.
  
Georgia ranks second in the nation for childhood obesity, according to recent data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In DeKalb County, 13 percent of students in public schools are obese.


 

Cigarettes, COPD and the Loss of So Much

A Conversation With DPH's Gavert Smith

Six years ago, Gavert Smith suffered from a bad cold.  She recalls lighting a cigarette, taking a puff and coughing uncontrollably.  Then came the severe back pain every time she coughed. She made a promise to herself that if she lived through the pain that she would never put another cigarette in her mouth.
 
Two days later, she knew something was seriously wrong and she visited her doctor for testing. Shortness of breath had doctors suspecting a heart attack. They checked her stress levels on the treadmill but she could not handle the movement and inclines.  They gave her oxygen so she could breathe.  The chest x-ray held the clues to her medical condition.  The following Monday, the doctor told her she had a serious lung disease caused by years of smoking and there was no cure.  She had COPD.


 

Combating Disease and Absenteeism
Clayton Co. Merges Vaccines With School Enrollment
 

Monique Edward comforts her five-year old son, Zechariah, after receiving a vaccination from CCBOH Child Health Nursing Supervisor, Bonnie-Jean Hudson.

August is National Immunization Awareness Month and it is also the time when parents are preparing back-to-school schedules for the new school year. The Clayton County Board of Health (CCBOH), Health District 3-3, has encouraged parents to get an early start on school required vaccinations.
 
Monique Edward brought her 5-year-old son, Zechariah, to the CCBOH Immunization Clinic to receive his required vaccinations and paperwork to enroll in Clayton County Public Schools. Clayton County public health nurses have vaccinated nearly a hundred children since the start of the back-to-school drive.  A total of 1,327 patients visited the clinic and 1,665 vaccinations were administered as of Aug. 9.  With the extended hours, Monique Edward avoided long waits at the health department or delays in getting an appointment with Zechariah's pediatrician.


 

Georgia's HIV "Taking Control" Initiative Presented at NASTAD Meeting in DC       

On August 2nd, the State STD Office participated in the 2011 National Alliance of State and Territorial AIDS Directors (NASTAD) Black Gay Men and HIV/AIDS meeting.  The purpose of this meeting was for jurisdictions to provide updates on their design concepts developed in the 2010 NASTAD meeting.  The HIV Office developed the "Taking Control" concept which focuses on community mobilization, social marketing and HIV testing.
  
During this year's NASTAD meeting, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) published new HIV incidence estimates among men who have sex with men (MSM) aged 13 to 29.  Data shows HIV incidence among Black/African American MSM increased 48 percent from 2006 to 2009.