Health
SACRAMENTO – California Department of Public Health (CDPH) Director and State Public Health Officer Dr. Karen Smith announced Wednesday that it is no longer necessary for CDPH to monitor travelers returning from Ebola-affected countries in West Africa for symptoms of Ebola virus disease, or EVD.
The end of CDPH’s Ebola Monitoring Program comes as the World Health Organization (WHO) declares Guinea free of EVD.
CDPH stopped monitoring travelers from Liberia on Sept. 3, 2015, and those from Sierra Leon on Nov. 7, 2015, following guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and after WHO declared those countries free of EVD.
“As the Ebola outbreak comes to an end, the continued focus on traveler health is extremely important,” Dr. Smith said. “Health care providers need to rapidly identify travel-related risks in people who may have infectious diseases to prevent the spread of diseases and provide the best care possible. We live in a world where the introduction of a new and highly infectious disease to California could be just a plane ride away.”
Smith added, “California’s response to the Ebola outbreak in West Africa has proven that the Department and its public health partners are prepared to respond to potential outbreaks of other infectious diseases that may be imported from other countries.”
Since CDPH and local health departments (LHDs) began monitoring travelers returning from the Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea on Oct. 12, 2014, nearly 1,300 travelers have been monitored.
With the three West African nations free of EVD, 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 West Africa Ebola outbreak started December 2013 and infected 28,640 people, of which 11,315 died. It has been the largest Ebola outbreak in history.
The monitoring of returning travelers from Ebola-affected nations in West Africa has protected California from Ebola virus transmission.
Besides monitoring travelers, CDPH collaborated with local health departments, emergency medical services, and the health care community to ensure that EMS personnel, physicians, and hospitals in California were ready to safely transport and care for potential EVD patients.
No cases of EVD were identified in California during this outbreak.
“Monitoring travelers from the affected countries was a monumental task that proved very successful,” Dr. Smith said. “The CDPH Ebola Returning Traveler Epidemiology Team, along with the staff at local health departments throughout California, has worked hard to monitor all returning travelers on a daily basis for up to 21 days. The collaboration between CDPH and the local health departments is what made the traveler monitoring system work so well.”
In addition, CDPH and LHD staff have worked closely with health care facility staff and emergency medical services personnel to create a network that is prepared to safely transport and care for persons with EVD or other diseases that have the potential to spread in health care facilities, Dr. Smith said.
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SACRAMENTO – The California Health and Human Services Agency (CHHS) and the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) on Tuesday announced 23 community-based health innovations that advance the Let’s Get Healthy California effort to make California the nation’s healthiest state by 2022.
These innovations will be recognized and discussed as part of an Innovation Conference in Sacramento on Jan. 26, 2016.
“We invited communities across the state to submit innovative ideas and projects that further the Triple Aim of better health, better care, and lower cost in California,” said CHHS Secretary Diana Dooley. “This is a great opportunity to recognize and learn from the work going on at a local level to meet the goals of our Let’s Get Healthy California initiative.”
“The Let’s Get Healthy California Innovation Challenge was designed to promote improvement in population health and care through new pathways,” said CDPH Director Dr. Karen Smith. “It encouraged the state and locals to collaborate, share ideas, and learn from one another to support new and creative ways to make California the healthiest state in the nation.”
CHHS and CDPH received nearly 100 submissions from community and health advocates, health care providers, community based organizations, civic and data enthusiasts, and many other individuals as part of this past summer’s Innovation Challenge.
January’s conference will showcase and also measure California’s progress to meet the six goal areas of the Let’s Get Healthy California report.
In 2012, Gov. Jerry Brown issued Executive Order B-19-12 to create the Let’s Get Healthy California Task Force with the goal of making California the healthiest state in the nation by 2022. The Let’s Get Healthy California initiative focuses on furthering the Triple Aim – better health, better care and lower costs – and promoting health equity.
It consists of two strategic directions – Health Across the Lifespan and Pathways to Health – and six major goal areas, Healthy Beginnings, Living Well, End of Life, Redesigning the Health System, Creating Healthy Communities, and Lowering the Cost of Care. For more information on the Innovation Challenge and conference, visit the Let’s Get Healthy California Web page.
The 23 selected health innovations are listed below. For more information on each of the innovations, please visit CHHS’ Let’s Get Healthy California Web page.
Goal 1: Healthy Beginnings
· “Bright Beginnings,” Ventura County Public Health, Ventura County
· “Building Broccoli Smiles through Food Literacy,” Food Literacy Center, Sacramento, Sacramento County
· “Collaborative Partnerships and Environments for Early Childhood Health,” Healthy & Active Before 5, Contra Costa County
· “Healthy Babies are Worth the Wait Community Program,” March of Dimes, Barstow, Victorville, Apple Valley, Hesperia, and Adelanto, San Bernardino County
Goal 2: Living Well
· “AARP Livability Index,” AARP
· “Ending Hunger in Orange County,” Waste Not OC, Anaheim and Orange, Orange County
· “Growing Healthy Habits – A Community Garden Model,” Yolo County Health and Human Services Agency, Woodland, Yolo County
· “Skid Row Healthy Food Micro-Enterprise Project,” Los Angeles Community Action Network, Los Angeles, Los Angeles County
· “Street Vendors: Bringing Healthy Food to Central Valley Residents,” Cultiva La Salud – Public Health Institute, Southeast Fresno, Fresno County
Goal 3: End of Life
· “How to Make Advance Care Planning Easier,” University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco County
· “Medical-Legal Partnership for Seniors,” University of California San Francisco/University of California Hastings Consortium on Law, Science & Health Policy, San Francisco, San Francisco County
· “UCLA Health/Coalition for Compassionate Care of California Advance Care Planning Initiative (ACPI)”, University of California, Los Angeles, (UCLA) Health and Coalition for Compassionate Care of California, Los Angeles County
Goal 4: Redesigning the Health System
· “Clinic in the Park: Connect, Screen, Educate,” Clinic in the Park: Connect, Screen, Educate, a fiscally sponsored project of OneOC, Anaheim, Costa Mesa, Irvine, Santa Ana and Tustin, Orange County
· “The MobileMAMA Text Program: Integrating Medical Care and Social Services for Pregnant Women in the Safety Net,” Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, Los Angeles County Department of Health Services and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholars Program
· “Santa Rosa Community Health Centers Care Coordination Program,” Santa Rosa Community Health Centers (SRCHC), Santa Rosa, Sonoma County
Goal 5: Creating Healthy Communities
· “A Culture of Health: Creation of the Healthy RC Steering Committee,” city of Rancho Cucamonga, Healthy RC, Rancho Cucamonga, San Bernardino County
· “Active Design Guidelines and Icon,” Sacramento, Sacramento County
· “Live the Challenge,” Building Healthy Communities South Kern, Arvin, Lamont, Weedpatch and Greenfield, Kern County
· “Walk With Friends,” Health Education Council, South Sacramento Valley Hi neighborhood, Sacramento County
Goal 6: Lowering the Cost of Care
· “Care Transitions,” Partnership HealthPlan of California, Northern California
· “Improving Healthcare Quality & Safety While Reducing Costs Through Clinical Pharmacy Service Integration,” University of Southern California School of Pharmacy and AltaMed Health Services, Los Angeles County and Orange County
· “Increasing Tdap Vaccination Among Pregnant Medi-Cal Women In Los Angeles County,” Los Angeles County Comprehensive Perinatal Services Program, San Fernando Valley, Los Angeles County
· “RxSafe Marin: Marin County Prescription Drug Misuse and Abuse Initiative,” Marin County Department of Health and Human Services, Marin County
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