Tag: updates

It is said, “Sitting is the new smoking.” There is growing public health concern about the amount of time spent sedentary. Too much time spent in sedentary behaviours is linked with poor health, including higher cardiometabolic risk markers, type 2 diabetes and premature mortality. A new study finds that here is strong evidence that it is possible to intervene to reduce sedentary behaviours in adults by 22 minutes a day. What are these effective interventions?

This free 60 minute webinar will look at the effectiveness of interventions which include a sedentary behaviour outcome measure in adults. Further, it will explore the implementation recommendations pointed to by this study.

The panelists are Anne Martin and Nanette Mutrie of the Physical Activity for Health Research Centre, Institute for Sport, Physical Education and Health Sciences, University of Edinburgh. They will present findings from their systematic review:

Interventions with potential to reduce sedentary time in adults: Systematic review and meta-analysis. British Journal of Sports Medicine, 2015; 49(16):1056-63. pmid: 25907181

Date: Thursday, April 7
Time: 8:30am-9:30am Pacific Time

Please go here to register or for more information.

During the first full week of April each year, APHA brings together communities across the United States to observe National Public Health Week as a time to recognize the contributions of public health and highlight issues that are important to improving our nation. This year’s theme is Healthiest Nation 2030.

The APHA has created a website for this annual event with tools and tips, events across the nation, ways to take action, and a multimedia page with podcasts, videos and other resources to promote health and highlight efforts to create the healthiest nation by 2030 (look under the News tab).

Some highlights of these events are available on the website here.

CDPH in the News

Three more hospitals hit with ransomware attacks

from Network World

Two southern California hospitals were hit with cyberattacks on Friday, according to Healthcare Finance. The affected hospitals were Chino Valley Medical Center and Desert Valley Hospital, which are part of the national hospital chain Prime Healthcare Services. The malware attack “disrupted servers” and resulted in “some IT systems” being shut down so the infection wouldn’t spread.
Prime Healthcare spokesman Fred Ortega said the FBI had been contacted, but refused to say if the malware was ransomware or what ransom was being demanded. Ortega added, “The concern now is to let law enforcement do their thing and find the culprit.” Besides the FBI, “data security experts and the California Department of Public Health” are involved in the case.

Residents protest aerial spraying as weapon against mosquitoes

from Orange County Register

Emotions bubbled up Monday night at a town hall meeting on the battle against mosquitoes, with handfuls of parents, many trailing children and carrying protest signs, voicing their opposition to aerial spraying of pesticides to combat the potentially deadly West Nile virus. … The California Department of Public Health says, “While the pesticides used for mosquito control can cause adverse health effects under certain circumstances … the available data suggest that they are relatively safe when applied by (ultra low volume) spraying according to label instructions.”

Heart condition triggering investigation can come without warning

from Ventura County Star

As public health officials investigate a potentially fatal heart condition emerging in a cluster in Ventura County, cardiologists say the disease can be linked to a litany of causes including many viruses. Late Wednesday, Ventura County Public Health Officer Dr. Robert Levin said his office was investigating at least nine cases of cardiomyopathy, most emerging in February. At least five cases occurred in the Oxnard area, triggering concern there could be common causes. There has been one confirmed death. Levin declined to offer details, citing patient privacy. In its investigation, the county is working with the California Department of Public Health and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Silicon Valley Daycares Still Have Big Vaccination Problems

from wired.com

EVERY YEAR, THE California Department of Public Health collects statistics on vaccination rates at licensed daycare facilities and preschools. In 2015, WIRED reported that, based on the immunization rates at daycares associated with some of Silicon Valley’s most prominent companies, employees-presumably science-minded and futurist in their thinking, were nevertheless incompletely vaccinating their children.
The 2016 data just came out, and, well, we have good news and bad news. Some of the numbers have come up, but some workers at tech companies still aren’t vaccinating their children to the extent recommended by the US Centers for Disease Control. That’s bad. It leaves both the kids and their toddler classmates vulnerable to infectious pathogens.

Humboldt Bay to Turn Red in Name of Science

from North Coast Journal

Some water testing next week may leave those in and around Humboldt Bay seeing red.
The California Department of Public Health and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced that they will begin a series of water tests March 14 that will include dumping a non-toxic, fluorescent red dye – Rhodamine WT – into the bay to help track how wastewater flows and dilutes in Humboldt Bay. The test – which comes as a part of the state’s evaluation of Arcata’s proposal to move the outflow of treated sewage from its wastewater treatment plant to a new location within the bay – seeks to make sure the bay’s commercial shellfish industry is protected from potential sources of contamination.
“The goal here is the safety of people who like to eat commercially harvested shellfish, such as oysters, clams and mussels,” said California Department of Public Health Director Karen Smith in a press release. “While this may cause the bay to look unusual, the water should return to its normal color within days. The dye is commonly used for these studies and has an excellent safety record.”

CDPH in the News

NORML Endorses California Adult Use Of Marijuana (AUMA) Act

from The Weed Blog

Today, the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML), the nation’s oldest and largest marijuana law reform organization, announced that its Board of Directors has formally voted to endorse the California ballot measure known as the Control, Regulate and Tax Adult Use of Marijuana Act. NORML joins Drug Policy Alliance, Marijuana Policy Project, California Cannabis Industry Association, California Medical Association and California NAACP, among others, in support of AUMA.
The official proponents of the measure are:
Dr. Donald O. Lyman, MD, award-winning physician, member of the California Medical Association and former Chief of the Division of Chronic Disease and Injury Control at the California Department of Public Health and
Michael Sutton, longtime conservationist and environmental attorney, former President of the California Fish and Game Commission and former Vice President of National Audubon Society

New Report Links Pesticides Used in Combination Near Schools to Increased Cancer Risk

from IndyBay

A new report by the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) has shown an increase in cancer risk from fumigant pesticides frequently used in combination near schools, including those in the Pajaro and Salinas Valleys. In response to the report’s findings, a coalition of parents, health professionals, teachers, farmworker advocates and labor unions has urged state policymakers to create stronger protections for schoolchildren across the state. Fumigant pesticides are difficult-to-control, highly volatile gasses injected into the soil to control pests around crops like strawberries, grapes, and orchard and root crops. They can persist in the air for days.
Over 25 million pounds of three fumigants – chloropicrin, metam salts, and Telone (1,3-dichloropropene) – were applied in California in the last year on record (2013). According to the California Department of Public Health, they are also three of the four most widely used pesticides near California schools. And 4.9 million pounds were applied in Monterey and Santa Cruz Counties combined.

CDC to Launch Investigations into Palo Alto Suicides as an Urgent Public Health Problem

from Star Mine News

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) will begin probing this week the enigma of the high incidence of youth suicide happening in the Palo Alto area as this has become an urgent public health problem.
The CDC investigation, or Epi-Aid, is in response to the request of the California Department of Public Health to the federal agency to address the number of suicides among youths that has risen since 2009, five times more than the national level.

Landmark Decision Opens First Needle Exchange in Conservative Orange County

from Huffington Post

Last Thursday, the California Department of Public Health approved the first ever needle exchange in Orange County – a major victory for public health and safety. Orange County has long opposed needle exchanges, despite decades of evidence demonstrating that these programs save lives and prevent the spread of infectious disease. However, due to the hard work of a team of community members and medical students, the Orange County Needle Exchange Program (OCNEP) will open on February 20.

AHF: CDC Confirms Porn Actor Infected with HIV on Set in 2014

from BusinessWire

AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) will host a Press Teleconference TODAY, Thursday, February 11th at 1:30pm Pacific Time to discuss breaking news today that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has confirmed an on-set transmission of HIV in the adult film industry from performer to performer in late 2014. In a comprehensive analysis published earlier today in its weekly Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR), the CDC confirms details of a 2014 California Department of Public Health (CDPH) investigation confirming an on-set HIV transmission in the adult film industry that occurred in late 2014.

About 13 percent of O.C. hospital workers skipped flu shot, state says

from Orange County Register

Public health officials repeatedly say the best protection against the flu is the flu vaccine. That advice is especially important for caregivers who work in hospitals and could pass the bug on to patients, who could face deadly complications from contracting a virus.
But not every health care worker heeds that advice. Figures released this week by the California Department of Public Health show that vaccination rates for the flu among employees varied greatly last flu season at Orange County hospitals, from 36.2 percent at Kindred Hospital Westminster to 98.6 percent at Children’s Hospital of Orange County. Countywide, the rate was 86.6 percent.

Have you ever needed or wanted to check the latest HIV/AIDS treatment guidelines right away? Now you can!

The National Library of Medicine (NLM) has announced the release of a new AIDSinfo Treatment Guidelines app for both iOS and Android devices. The AIDSinfo Treatment Guidelines app provides mobile access to the HIV/AIDS medical practice guidelines developed by working groups of the NIH Office of AIDS Research Advisory Council. The guidelines include recommendations by expert panels on the treatment of HIV infection and related opportunistic infections in adults, adolescents, and children and on the management of perinatal HIV infection.

The app will enable you to:

* Receive alert notifications when a new guideline is released or guideline content is updated
* Bookmark sections of a guideline
* Add notes to sections of a guideline
* Share guidelines and notes via social media, email, or text
* Search for information within guidelines
* Use the guideline spell suggest feature for searching when connected to wireless or using cellular data

Finding the Medical Subject Heading (MeSH) term for your search topic can often help you retrieve more relevant results and help ensure that you don’t miss articles.

MeSH is the National Library of Medicine controlled vocabulary thesaurus which is updated annually. NLM uses the MeSH thesaurus to index articles from thousands of biomedical journals for the MEDLINE/PubMed database.

For the 2016 update to its MeSh terms, the NLM added 438 descriptors and replaced 17 others with more up-to-date terminology. In addition, 9 descriptors and 1 qualifier were deleted.

Here are a few of the new 2016 terms for your perusal. They include some minor adjustments, and a few surprises.

* Compassion Fatigue
* Contraceptive Prevalence Surveys
* Data Anonymization
* Digital Divide
* Gender Dysphoria
* Grandparents
* Infant Health (replacing Infant Welfare)
* Legendary Creatures
* Literacy
* Maternal Health (replacing Maternal Welfare)
* Open Access Publishing
* Pedestrians
* Presenteeism
* Romanticism

Remember that these MeSH are new for 2016, so they won’t have a lot of articles tagged with them just yet, and most are not retroactive.

CDPH in the News

California ends Ebola monitoring of travelers returning from West Africa
from Los Angeles Times

The California Department of Public Health has announced that it no longer will monitor travelers returning from West Africa for symptoms of Ebola. Citing an end to outbreaks of the disease in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, health officials said they were ending their Ebola monitoring program following consultation with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
"With the three West African nations free of Ebola Virus Disease, daily monitoring of returning travelers will no longer be required due to the low possibility of transmission of the disease into the United States," the health department said in a prepared statement.

California Details 59 Cases of Rare Polio-like Syndrome
from Medscape

Fifty-nine cases of acute flaccid myelitis have been identified in California in the past 3 years. Most cases of this rare polio-like syndrome have occurred in children and young adults, and the precise cause remains unclear, although a viral cause is highly suspected. The 59 California cases of acute flaccid myelitis, which encompass a subset of acute flaccid paralysis cases with radiologic or neurophysiologic findings suggestive of spinal motor neuron involvement, were reported to the California Department of Public Health between June 2012 and July 2015.

California’s Pro-Vaccination Law May Be Working
from Wired

Vaccination rates among California kindergartners rose last year, and fewer students skipped shots because of their parents’ personal beliefs about immunizations, according to state officials. The changes, though slight, suggest that a state law barring parents from refusing to have their kids vaccinated appears to have had some impact even before taking effect later this year.
More than half a million children attend public or private kindergarten in California. Information collected during the fall for the 2015-2016 school year shows 92.9 percent of children received all of the required vaccinations. That’s up from 90.4 percent in 2014 and 90.2 percent in 2013, according to a report by the California Department of Public Health.

UCI Medical Student Alvin Chan Uses Fotonovela Approach to Raise HPV Vaccination Awareness
from newswise

Fourth-year medical student Alvin Chan is taking a novel approach to raise HPV awareness – a comic novel approach. He and his colleagues created and evaluated a fotonovela (photographic comic book) designed to improve human papillomavirus vaccination acceptance in the United States, particularly among Latinos. [He is] working with the California Department of Public Health to have the fotonovela disseminated on their website.