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Baton Rouge --- The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration wants 90 percent of the population to practice safety belt usage by the year 2005. To begin that goal, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is advising state health departments to spend Buckle Up America Week, May 19 through 26, encouraging teens and young adults to fasten their belts.
Baton Rouge --- Four more birds tested positive for West Nile virus this week, bringing the year’s total to 52 positive birds in 34 parishes. Sabine Parish was the only new parish added to the list for this round of tests, with a blue jay testing positive for the virus. The three other new birds came from Caddo, Lafayette and Natchitoches parishes, which all previously had birds test positive for the virus.
Baton Rouge – David W. Hood, secretary of the Department of Health and Hospitals, today announced that Sharon G. Howard has been promoted to the position of assistant secretary for the Office of Public Health.
Baton Rouge -- Alcohol is the leading cause of brain damage in newborns, yet statistics show that half of all women of childbearing age drink alcohol. Most alarming is that about 20 percent of women who know they are pregnant continue to drink during their pregnancy.
Baton Rouge – State health officials have concluded laboratory testing to analyze the contents of two letters discovered Wednesday and Thursday in Lake Charles. In both instances, the green leafy material found in letters mailed to the Mayor’s Office and the Chamber of Commerce has tested negative for any bio-hazardous substance. Final confirmatory testing was completed over the weekend by the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta.
Baton Rouge – Medicaid recipients in several North Louisiana parishes will soon each be linked to a doctor who will coordinate their medical care. This change is a result of the Department of Health and Hospital’s CommunityCARE program, which creates a "medical home" for most Medicaid patients.
Baton Rouge --- The total count of dead birds infected with the West Nile virus in the state of Louisiana stands at 41, with the addition of eight dead birds the Department of Health and Hospitals reported this week. Four of the eight latest birds are from Franklin, Grant, Iberia and Winn parishes, where no West Nile virus specimens had been previously reported. The remaining four birds came from East Baton Rouge, Lafayette, Livingston and Rapides parishes, all of which had previously reported infected specimens.
Baton Rouge – The Department of Health and Hospitals is investigating two possible cases, one from Shreveport and one from Bossier City, of mosquito-borne illnesses in north Louisiana. In both cases, multiple laboratory tests have been conducted on blood samples and the test results have proven inconclusive for either West Nile virus or St. Louis Encephalitis.
Baton Rouge --- Representatives from the Department of Health and Hospitals are traveling to North Louisiana Friday, May 2, to introduce the CommunityCARE program to local medical professionals and community leaders. DHH representatives will host two public forums, one in Monroe at 8:30 a.m. and another in Shreveport at 12:30 p.m. DHH Secretary David W. Hood and Medical Director Dr. Jimmy Guidry will attend both forums.
Baton Rouge – The federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry has updated the Department of Health and Hospitals on two new developments in the on going investigation of human dioxin exposure in Calcasieu Parish.
Baton Rouge --- Two dead blue jays from Assumption and Jackson parishes and a dead cardinal from Union Parish have pushed Louisiana’s count of West Nile positive dead birds past 30. The total number of dead birds infected with the virus is now 33, with 541 birds tested this year and 3,091 reported. The three parishes these new dead birds came from previously had no birds that tested positive for the virus. West Nile specimens now have appeared in 24 parishes statewide.
Baton Rouge --- Phase One of Louisiana’s program to vaccinate health care workers against smallpox has ended, and many have labeled the program a success.