When we protect our children from lead exposure, we protect them from the adverse effects that can stay with them for a lifetime. Read more here to learn about preventing lead exposure and the availability of lead screening and testing.
The Moultrie County Health Department (MCHD) is proud to support National Public Health Week (April 4-10, 2022). The 2022 theme is “Public Health Is Where You Are.”
Natural and LP gas has a specific odor that alerts you of their presence. This feature is not true of carbon monoxide (CO). CO is a poisonous, flammable gas with no odor and color, making CO especially hazardous. We can breathe in CO with no sense of odor or irritation to our nose or throats. When we inhale CO, our blood cells attach to CO molecules instead of oxygen molecules. This process starves our organs of the oxygen needed for continued survival, resulting in illness and death. Children and the elderly, as well as individuals with heart or respiratory conditions, are especially vulnerable to the effects of CO.
The Center for Disease Control reports that over 400 Americans die from carbon monoxide (CO) poisoning every year, typically in their home or car. Many of these deaths occur during the winter months. These are the months when people heat their homes while minimizing outside ventilation. Although CO levels may not prove high enough to be fatal, they can still result in serious illnesses. CO poisonings account for nearly 50,000 visits to hospital emergency departments each year.
The Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) announced today that in response to a sharp drop in the demand for COVID-19 testing services at the ten Community-Based Testing Sites and the anticipated end of federal funding, operations at the locations will end on March 31. IDPH previewed that operations would be winding down when the mask mandate was lifted and has seen traffic at the sites – which carried out more than 1.5 million tests in total throughout their operation – drop precipitously in recent weeks. The sites are currently handling less than one percent of the tests being conducted statewide.
The Illinois Poison Center logs over 74,000 calls on poisoning exposures each year. Poison centers across the nation manage over 2.1 million cases each year. It may surprise you that 90% of these incidents occur in the home. Furthermore, some of the most common exposures involve toxic substances we all use or come in contact with relatively often.
National Poison Prevention Week is observed the third week of March every year. Congress established the observance in 1961 to highlight the risks of being poisoned by household products. Although we’ve made substantial progress since the early 1970s, over 2 million poisonings are reported in the U.S. every year. What may surprise you is that over 90% of these occur in the home, and those affected most often are children under the age of 12.
As a new COVID-19 treatment rolls out across the country, the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) continues to distribute these life-saving therapeutics equitably across the state. On February 11, 2022, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued an emergency use authorization for a new monoclonal antibody, bebtelovimab, for the treatment of COVID-19.
With statewide COVID-19 hospitalization rates declining faster than any other point in the pandemic, Illinois is on track to lift the statewide indoor mask requirement on Monday, February 28, 2022. Mask requirements will continue where federally mandated, such as on public transit and in high-risk settings including healthcare facilities and congregate care.
The Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) continues to urge people to get vaccinated and boosted as it marks the two-year anniversary of the first COVID-19 case reported in Illinois. Two years later, IDPH is reporting more than 30,000 COVID-19 deaths in Illinois.