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NEW ORLEANS -- Seven weeks after the launch of a statewide secondhand smoke education and awareness campaign, the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals’ Tobacco Control Program is taking its message to Louisiana’s newspaper readers through a print advertising campaign and renewing its commitment to listen to Louisiana residents about secondhand smoke issues.
Baton Rouge—A report issued today by the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals shows a eight-year trend of Medicaid spending at or below the U.S. growth rate. Cost controls in the program have saved Louisiana taxpayers more than $6 billion since 1996, while Medicaid has nearly doubled the number of children covered and improved both access to health care and quality of services.
Baton Rouge—A report issued today by the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals shows a nine-year trend of Medicaid spending at or below the U.S. growth rate. Cost controls in the program have saved Louisiana taxpayers more than $6 billion since 1996, while Medicaid has nearly doubled the number of children covered and improved both access to health care and quality of services.
Baton Rouge – The Department of Health and Hospitals has published a Family Readiness Guide to assist citizens with making proper decisions in the event of a natural or man-made emergency or a bioterrorism threat. The guide is being first distributed in the New Orleans metropolitan area as an insert in Saturday’s Times-Picayune. About 200,000 copies will be distributed Saturday, and additional printings will result in a total of 3 million guides that will be distributed as newspaper inserts throughout the remainder of the state in early 2004.
Baton Rouge – With the opening of a Vital Records Registry branch in Hammond, citizens in the Florida Parishes now will have an easier time getting birth and death certificates.
Baton Rouge – With the opening of a Vital Records Registry branch in Thibodaux, citizens in the Houma-Thibodaux area now will have an easier time getting birth and death certificates.
New Orleans -- The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s most recent report on sexually transmitted diseases shows Louisiana with 11,396 reported cases of gonorrhea and 18,451 reported cases of chlamydia during 2002. This ranks the state first and fourth, respectively, for the rates of these two sexually transmitted diseases. In addition, Louisiana’s syphilis rate ranked eighth among states.
Baton Rouge --- After three weeks of West Nile inactivity, the Department of Health and Hospitals today reports seven additional West Nile virus cases. These are the first new cases confirmed in December. Also, an 87-year-old female from Bossier Parish who died in September is being reported as a West Nile-related death.
NEW ORLEANS – Louisiana smokers looking for an easy and thoughtful gift to offer to their loved ones this holiday season need only look as far as their back porch. In addition to fighting mall traffic, spending hundreds of dollars on expensive jewelry and fighting crowds for that perfect last-minute item, tobacco users can give the greatest gift of all: The gift of good health.
Baton Rouge --- A survey of the nation’s bioterrorism readiness ranked Louisiana as one of only 13 states to receive five out 10 key indicators that assess the state’s ability to respond to a bio-threat. Only nine other states received a higher score.
Baton Rouge – Teens in Louisiana continue to find it more difficult to purchase tobacco products than their peers in all but one other state.
Baton Rouge – A recent study of 10,000 households for the Department of Health and Hospitals indicates the number of children without health insurance has declined. An analysis of the study points to the Louisiana Children’s Health Insurance Program as a key factor in the reduction. According to the survey, 21.1 percent of Louisiana residents between the ages of 19 and 65 are uninsured, but for those under age 19, only 11.1 percent are without health care coverage.