The Centers for Disease Control has started to take control of a salmonella outbreak that primarily happened in Illinois, reports Chris Freeman of the Northwest Herald in McHenry County, Illinois.
The outbreak is tied to alfalfa sprouts served at the Jimmy John’s sandwich restaurant, headquartered in Champaign, Illinois. (more…)
The Centers for Disease Control has released a study on HIV infections among gay men and the Chicago Tribune’s Dahleen Glanton relays the finding that 18 percent of men who have sex with men in Chicago are infected with HIV. Fifty-three percent of these men are not aware they’re infected, higher than the national norm. (more…)
Each year 31,000 people in the U.S. die from infections acquired in hospitals — infections that are largely preventable. Fortunately, hospital-acquired infections are in decline in Illinois and most other states monitored by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (more…)
The Chicago Housing Authority will get federal money to help its mostly low-income residents stop smoking. The Chicago Sun-Times Monifa Thomas reports that CHA’s Roosevelt Square Development will introduce smoke-free public housing buildings and also provide counseling for tenants looking to quit. The CHA plan is part of a new wave of city and nation wide health initiatives:
The Roosevelt Square pilot is part of a larger program called the Chicago Tobacco Prevention Project, which aims to decrease tobacco use and secondhand smoke exposure citywide by focusing on groups with high smoking rates, such as low-income African Americans.
Other yet-to-be-announced programs will target smoking rates among pregnant women, military veterans, food service workers and members of the gay and lesbian community, said Joel Africk, president of the Respiratory Health Association of Metropolitan Chicago.
Chicago was one of 44 communities chosen to receive federal grants from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to implement obesity- or smoking-prevention projects. The city’s $11.5 million grant will allow the respiratory health association and the Chicago Department of Public Health to launch the Chicago Tobacco Prevention Project over the next two years.
CDC prioritizing anti-smoking work should come as no surprise — CDC head Thomas Frieden is perhaps best known for his anti-smoking campaigns as head of New York City’s Department of Health.
