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Beginning Dec. 1, Louisiana oyster harvesters will have a two-week opportunity to move oysters from the public oyster seed grounds located southwest of Point Au Fer and the South Point area, and transplant them to their private leases for later harvest.
Beginning Dec. 1, Louisiana oyster harvesters will have a two-week opportunity to move oysters from the public oyster seed grounds located southwest of Point Au Fer and the South Point area, and transplant them to their private leases for later harvest.
This is the final week for water sampling and advisory activities for the 2007 beach season. Any beach location under an advisory this week will remain so during the off-season.
Free flu vaccines were given to 5,057 residents throughout Louisiana during the first hour of the state’s mass vaccination effort. The free vaccines continue until 7:30 p.m. this evening at nine locations.
The Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals – Office of Public Health, and its volunteers vaccinated nearly 26,000 people within just a few hours, demonstrating the state’s ability to respond to a possible health emergency. Unofficial totals put the number of vaccinations at 25,955 statewide. Long, but fast moving, lines formed quickly at the nine regional flu vaccination clinics called Point of Dispensing sites, or PODS. The state’s Office of Public Health had hoped to vaccinate as many as 200 people per hour, but instead handled more than 550 an hour during peak times. People from 10 states and two countries showed up for the free flu shots.
Flu shots are now available at parish health units throughout the state. The Department of Health and Hospitals is making these important shots available to people in certain high-risk groups, including children and older adults.
Most of the beaches along the Cameron Parish coast continue to remain under swim advisories. Advisories are in effect for Hackberry, Constance, Gulf Breeze, Little Florida, Long and Rutherford beaches, as well as all sections of Holly Beach.
The West Jefferson Medicaid Office reopened this week on the fourth floor of the state office building at 2150 West Bank Expressway in Harvey. This is the same address, but on a different floor, as where the Medicaid office operated from before Hurricane Katrina.
The tragic death of a 17-year-old high school student in Virginia from Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA, has brought this bacterium, termed a “superbug” by some, to the forefront of the public health discussion.
Efforts to address the critical nursing shortage in the New Orleans area are paying dividends as more than 400 nurses have committed to continuing their practice in the city, and an additional 200 nurses have applied for funds to move to the region.
Next week, Louisiana citizens can help themselves get ready for the upcoming flu season, as well as help the state prepare to respond to a public health emergency (such as release of a chemical or biological agent).
Dr. William Roger Clark has been named Medical Director for the Department of Health and Hospital’s Emergency Medical Services. The appointment was effective October 1, 2007.