It’s National Infant Immunization Week

Public Health Provides Hundreds of Infant Immunizations Each Year in Champaign County

The last week of April is National Infant Immunization Week, an annual observance that highlights immunizations as an important way to protect children from a dozen potentially life-threatening diseases.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) launched the second decade of the observance this week, and hailed immunization as one of the ten great public health achievements of the 20th century.

• In March of this year the CDC reported that rubella is no longer a major health threat to expectant mothers and their unborn children, thanks to immunizations.

• April, 2005 marks the 50th anniversary of the introduction of the polio vaccine. In 1955, the Illinois state legislature passed a $1 million emergency appropriation to buy and freely distribute the Salk polio vaccine. The Champaign-Urbana Public Health District began polio vaccinations the same year.

• Today the world is free of smallpox; polio could soon be eradicated worldwide; rubella, once a major cause of birth defects, has been eliminated in the U.S.; and diseases and death from diphtheria, tetanus, measles, mumps, hepatitis B, and Haemophilus influenzae type b are at or near record lows.

The Champaign-Urbana Public Health District and the Champaign County Public Health Department are leading providers of infant immunizations in Champaign County. Between April 1, 2004 and March 31, 2005, the Health District gave more than 400 immunizations to 276 infants up to one year of age.

The Champaign County Public Health Department provides funds for immunizations to adults and children who live in Champaign County but outside Champaign-Urbana. About 36 percent of the child immunizations administered in the last year went to county residents.

“We are now protecting children from a dozen vaccine preventable diseases,” said Public Health Administrator Dave King. “Thousands of children have been vaccinated over the years in Champaign County, and countless cases of disease, disability and death have been prevented.”

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Download 2005-04-27-Infant-Immunizations-PR

Smokers Hoping to Kick the Habit Have Lots of Options

For the First Time Ever, Freedom From Smoking Is Offered During the Day

“We’ve always offered classes in the evening and have quickly filled the classes. We’ve had requests for daytime classes and thought we would try it and see if we got the same response. This way we can serve the people who work in the evenings, too.” - Nikki Hillier, program facilitator

Champaign, IL – The Champaign-Urbana Public Health District, the Champaign County Public Health Department and Carle Foundation Hospital are offering three new Freedom From Smoking programs this spring, one of which will be offered during the day. Public Health and Carle have collaborated to bring more than a dozen Freedom From Smoking classes to the community, but have never before offered the program the during the day.

The seven-session class costs only $10, which includes all program materials and four weeks of nicotine patches. Those who enroll in Freedom from Smoking have a higher chance of success than those who try to quit on their own – with or without nicotine patches.

Participants don’t just talk about quitting, they actually do so in week three of the program. They meet again four more times to support one another in the transition to a smoke-free life.

This program is a creation of the American Lung Association. It is funded in part by the Illinois Department of Public Health Tobacco Free Communities program. It is supported

by the Champaign County Public Health Department, making it available to anyone living in Champaign County.

• Session 1 begins Tuesday, April 26 and runs through Tuesday, May 31. The class meets from 7-8 p.m.

• Session 2 begins Wednesday, April 27 and runs through Wednesday, June 1. The class meets from 12:30 -1:30 p.m.

• Session 3 begins Tuesday, May 17 and runs through Tuesday, June 21. The class meets from 5:30 – 6:30 p.m.

  (NOTE: There is an extra class in the third week of the program, the week attendees kick the habit.)

  Most sessions will be at the Carle Forum, Lauhoff Conference Room, 611 W. Park, Urbana. Seating is limited and pre-registration is required. Participants must attend all sessions. Please call 217-531-2914 for more information.

   

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Thursday, March 24, is World Tuberculosis Day

Public Health is Part of a Worldwide Effort to Eradicate TB

Champaign, IL – March 24 is World TB Day, an annual observance meant to draw attention to a disease that contributes to the deaths of more than 2 million people every year.

• One-third of the world’s population is infected with TB

• Each year, 9 million people become sick with TB

• TB is the leading killer of people infected with HIV

  Tuberculosis is a significant health concern in Champaign County. The disease has not been eradicated here, and students and others move to Champaign- Urbana from every part of the world. Without widespread TB testing and treatment, the disease could quickly spread.

  The Champaign-Urbana Public Health District and the Champaign County Public Health Department are working to reduce the incidence of Tuberculosis in Champaign County. The Health District offers TB tests every week at its Urbana satellite office (217 N. Broadway), with follow-up tests and medical care for those with active TB. Nurses offer weekly TB tests in three local homeless shelters, and

provide TB tests to health care professionals. (Health providers should be screened every year for TB.) The County Public Health Department provides funds for TB services to residents of the county who live outside Champaign- Urbana.

Nurses in the Health District’s Division of HIV/STD/TB Prevention & Management see a few active TB cases here every year. Without treatment, these individuals would spread the disease to dozens of others.

In 2004 Health District nurses performed 2,204 Tuberculosis tests. Of those, 80 tested positive. Follow-up tests found five people with active (contagious) TB, all of whom received direct observed therapy to curtail the infection and prevent transmission of the disease to others. (Two of those with active TB were from other counties.)

Left untreated, one person with active TB will infect 10 to 15 people PER YEAR!

Symptoms of pulmonary TB include excess phlegm and a persistent cough that lasts more than 3 weeks, chest pain and coughing blood. Other symptoms include fever, chills, night sweats, appetite loss, weight loss and fatigue.

According to the federal Centers for Disease Control & Prevention, TB is the 2nd leading killer of adults worldwide. In the U.S., Tuberculosis disproportionately affects minorities. More than 80 percent of TB cases in the U.S. occur in racial and ethnic minorities.

Only through the vigilance of health authorities everywhere can the disease be checked and – it is hoped – eliminated throughout the world.

Health District TB Clinics at 217 N. Broadway, Urbana:

Skin Tests: Mondays, 8 a.m. – 4 p.m.
Test results are read the following Wednesday, 8 a.m. – 4 p.m.

For more information, contact the Health District’s Division of HIV/STD/TB Prevention & Management: 217-239-7827.

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Download 2005-03-18-World-TB-Day-PR