Puerto Rico: HIV Cases Among Seniors on the Rise
The San Juan Health Department has created a new sex education program called "Golden Force" for Puerto Rican seniors after a reported 25 percent increase in new HIV cases among residents ages 60 and older. Health officials are planning prevention outreach, including television public service announcements and radio announcements to educate people about the dangers of unprotected sex.

Florida: Hospital System Prepares for Disaster on a Regional Level
The state Human Health and Services Office of Public Health and Science awarded a Critical Incident Management Systems for Health to improve disaster preparedness at hospitals in four South Florida counties. The grant will enable the redistribution of personnel, facilities, equipment and supplies in the event of disaster, equip hospitals to better handle an influx of patients, and serve as a communication system to help facilities track patients and resources.

Texas: Effort Targets Immigrant Cervical Cancer
With the support from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the University of Texas is expanding a program designed to boost cervical cancer screening rates among Mexican women. The University Texas-Houston Health Service Center will update the cervical cancer screening intervention with inclusion of video, an information flip chart, training guides for community health educators and a list of local cervical cancer screening services. The researchers also will test the efficacy of new updated cancer screening intervention to understand which characteristics, settings and delivery processes best enable the implementation of the intervention.

Michigan: Schools Promote Student Exercise by Walking or Biking
Seven schools in the state received a total of $300,000 in Safe Routes to School funding for projects that encourage students to walk or cycle to the school. Under the state program, schools will improve sidewalks, creating incentives for "walking school buses," a process that identifies transportation alternatives to school buses for students living within walking distance of campus. The program also aims to improving cross walks and develop brochures with pedestrian route maps and information for parents.

Nebraska: It is Time to Get Healthy
Community leaders in Omaha are developing a program to elevate the region to one of the nation's top 10 healthiest communities within 10 years. In the next six months, the program will target local communities where initiative leaders will work to create bike lanes, walking paths, community gardens, smoking prevention programs, and nutrition and wellness programs. The organizers will raise $250,000 each year to fund the program.

States Turn Challenges Into Opportunities, Advancing Cervical Cancer Prevention Efforts
This state-by-state comparison report released by Women in Government shows that states are making progress in the fight against cervical cancer, but still face barriers in terms of racial and socio-economic disparities in cervical cancer incidence, mortality, and a lack of access to care. According to the report, that 37 states received good ratings and 14 states and Washington, D.C. received fair ratings on their efforts to prevent cervical cancer.

Diabetes-Related Health Costs Soared to $174 Billion in 2007
According to this recent report by the American Diabetes Association, diabetes cost the United States $174 billion in 2007 in direct medical care costs and lost productivity. Much of the diabetes-related expenses stem from the treatment of complications caused by diabetes, while spending for routine preventive care to treat the condition is relatively low. The report also provides state-by state estimates of the cost of diabetes.

CDC Awards $24 Million for IT-Driven Pandemic Preparedness Projects
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will award $24 million in grants for projects that use health information technology to help communities prepare for and respond to pandemic flu. The grantees will undertake demonstration projects to create an electronic laboratory data exchange to support influenza surveillance, to integrate state-based immunization systems to track pandemic countermeasures, and to develop a statewide electronic mortality reporting system.

Average Annual Health Care Use and Expense for Shingles Among U.S. Civilian Noninstitutionalized Population, 2003-2005
This brief from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality estimates that in 2003, 2004 and 2005, 1.1 million persons per year had shingles or its complications and .9 million sought medical treatment. Treatment for shingles cost $525 per person. The estimates are based on data from the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey.

The American Lung Association's State of Tobacco Control 2007
This annual report card by the American Lung Association grades each of the 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico on their tobacco control policies on smoke-free air, cigarette tax, tobacco prevention spending and youth access to tobacco products. According to the report card, 21 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico have passed comprehensive smoke-free air laws. Twenty five states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico have cigarette tax rates of $1 or higher, and nine of those 25 states are at or above $2 per pack.

Ready or Not? Protecting the Public's Health from Disease, Disaster and Bioterrorism, 2007
Trust for America's Health released its fifth annual report detailing how prepared states are to handle a public health crisis. The report analyzed every state's and the District of Columbia's emergency preparedness plans and assigned letter grades. It concluded that while significant progress has been made, there are still vital areas of the nation's emergency preparedness planning that require attention.

Health, United States, 2007
This report, prepared by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Health Statistics, is a compilation of more than 150 health tables. Nearly one in five American adults reported not having adequate access to the specific type of care they needed.


Other Resources

National President's Challenge
The National President's Challenge is a new fitness program that begins March 20. It encourages individuals ages 6 and older to register on the President's Challenge web site, be active at least five days a week, and log that activity on their personal activity tracker.

CSG Annual Meeting Resolutions
The Council of State Governments monitors a host of issues that impact state governments. These issues are often brought before CSG's task force members at the spring and annual meeting through policy resolutions. At CSG's recent Annual Meeting in Oklahoma City, the Health Task Force considered and passed four policy resolutions. They addressed public health and climate change, smoking cessation, cervical cancer education programs and patient-centered medical homes. Please click on the link above to view the complete text of each resolution.

CDC Launches Redesigned Spanish Web site 'CDC en Espanol'
This Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Spanish-language Web site, CDC en Espanol, provides accurate, up-to-date information in Spanish on health issues of special interest to Hispanic communities, including information on a wide range of health promotion and disease prevention topics.

Expedited Partner Therapy -- State Information Web site
Legal status and barriers by state to providing medications to persons infected with certain STDs to be administered to their sexual partners.