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The Maine Suicide Prevention Program will sponsor Beyond the Basics of Suicide Prevention 2015: Pathway to Prevention: Working Toward Zero Suicide in Maine on from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. May 7 at the Abromson Center at the University of Southern Maine in Portland.
This
event serves as a best practices conference offering participants in-depth and
progressive information and the latest research in the field of suicide and
suicide prevention. It is designed for an adult audience who has attained basic
training and knowledge in suicide and suicide prevention, and wishes to expand
its knowledge and ability to engage in suicide prevention in Maine.
The program includes the most up-to-date research on suicidology and evidence-based tools
and provides participants with information to use in everyday practical
applications.
The target audience for this conference is primary care physicians, physician
assistants, nurses, psychologists, psychiatrists, mental health professionals,
alcohol and drug counselors, social workers, public safety professionals,
military personnel, public health professionals, educators, families, and
community members.
For
more information and to register: http://msppconference2015.eventbrite.com
In the coming months, youth and young adults will see
something they have already been seeing on TV, in magazines, and certainly on
the internet: electronic cigarettes.
This time, though, it will not be glamorous images and messages portrayed by an
industry which has seen tremendous growth in the past few years.
In 2014, the Monitoring the Future Study showed more teens
used e-cigarettes than traditional, tobacco cigarettes or any other tobacco
product – the first time a U.S. national study showed that teen use of
e-cigarettes surpassed use of tobacco cigarettes.
Maine CDC is getting ready to launch a new campaign which will educate youth and young adults about the
vastly unregulated, untested e-cigarette industry and encourage them to
question what they are NOT being told.
Stay tuned!
Maine CDC continues its effort to hire a State
Epidemiologist. The job posting produced several candidates, and
interviews have been scheduled with those who are most qualified. More
information will be available through the Public Health Update once the
position has been filled.
Test results received from US CDC on food samples from the Reiche School in Portland do not
provide the reason for the sudden onset of gastrointestinal illness in 22
students on March 10. While the Federal lab report has not yet been produced,
the U.S. CDC has confirmed that there were no bacteria found in the food that
can be linked to the illness at the school.
The tests of the food samples revealed the presence of germs
that are commonly found in healthy individuals and in some foods. These
germs can produce a toxin that leads to an illness, however, the illness would
have lasted much longer, and the symptoms would have been different than those
witnessed at Reiche School.
On March 10, 22 of 217 students who consumed beet salad at
lunch became suddenly ill with nausea and vomiting. The symptoms
disappeared within hours, and all of the students returned to school the
following day. A team from the Maine CDC immediately began an
investigation which eventually led to food tests in the State’s Health
and Environmental Testing lab. These tests proved inconclusive, and
the U.S. CDC was asked to accept the food samples to conduct more specialized
testing. The samples were accepted earlier this week.
The Maine CDC will officially close this case when the
lab report is received. The cause of the illness will be listed as
unknown.
Cases of pertussis (whooping cough) continue to be reported statewide.
So far this year, 94 cases have been reported in Maine, as of March 31. The majority of the cases are in school-aged children.
Maine CDC encourages providers who see patients for cough in an outbreak area to treat empirically for pertussis and test. Providers do not need to wait for positive results to return or a 2-week history of cough.
DTaP vaccine is recommended for all infants and children. Tdap vaccine is recommended for all preteens, teens, and adults, including health care providers and during the third trimester of every pregnancy. Per ACOG (American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists), Tdap is also recommended for every pregnancy in
the third trimester.
For more guidance and information, visit http://go.usa.gov/dCO
Local flu activity was reported in Maine for the week ending March 28.
Clinical recommendations and guidelines are available in the health alert issued January 15 (http://go.usa.gov/JXyY).
Weekly updates on flu cases are available online:
For more information, go to www.maineflu.gov or http://www.cdc.gov/flu/
The United States is currently experiencing a large, multi-state outbreak of measles linked to an amusement park in California. A total of 178 cases have been reported in 17 states. There are no cases in Maine. The last confirmed case of measles in Maine was in 1997.
For more information, go to http://www.cdc.gov/measles/
As
of March 29, the latest Ebola case count reported from US CDC is 14,797 confirmed
cases globally with approximately 10,460 deaths.
According to WHO’s March 25 Situation Report, the lowest weekly total of new confirmed cases in across Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone 2015 was reported in the week ending March 22.
The
Maine CDC Public Health Emergency Operations Center is currently monitoring the
situation.
US
CDC has established guidelines for active screening of all travelers arriving
from the three West African countries of Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Guinea who
must enter the US through the five designated international US airport ports of
entry (JFK, Newark Liberty, Atlanta, Dulles, and O’Hare).
For
more information, visit http://www.cdc.gov/vhf/ebola/
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