Recent News

Public Health Heroes: Baltimore’s Disease Detectives

Jun 2nd, 2017

In Baltimore, we have a special team of detectives working each day to save lives. They are not the usual detectives you may imagine; rather, these public health investigators make up our Acute Communicable Disease (ACD) team, a staff of 12, which examine routine and emerging infectious disease outbreaks, such as food-borne illness, rabies, meningitis, and ebola.

Note from the Commissioner: Get Naloxone Today

Jun 2nd, 2017

Every day in our city, two people lose their lives due to overdose. These are not random people—they are our friends, family, and fellow community members. These deaths are particularly tragic because there is a life-saving medication, naloxone, that can reverse an opioid overdose. 

Naloxone gives everyone the power to save a life, which is why I first issued a standing order to Baltimore’s 620,000 residents in October 2015. As a result, more than 800 lives have been saved from overdose by fellow residents. 

Subscribe to the Bmore Healthy newsletter.

Baltimore City Health Commissioner Signs New Standing Order for Opioid Overdose Reversal Medication

Jun 1st, 2017

New legislation allows residents to receive naloxone without having to complete unnecessary paperwork

BALTIMORE, MD (June 1, 2017) — Baltimore City Health Commissioner Dr. Leana Wen today signed a new standing order, which effectively makes naloxone, the opioid overdose reversal medication, available over-the-counter for Baltimore City residents.

Today, a new bipartisan law, known as the Heroin and Opioid Prevention Effort or HOPE Act (SB967/HB1329), goes into effect that removes the previously-required training to receive a naloxone prescription. While the training itself is brief, the mandate created unnecessary paperwork that inhibited outreach workers’ ability to reach more residents with the life-saving medication.

Study: Supervised Injection Facility could save Baltimore $6 million (WMAR)

May 30th, 2017

new study explores the cost-benefits of supervised injection facilities. Researchers estimate that providing one safe drug site in Baltimore will save the City $6 million in medical costs and potentially prevent overdose deaths.

“Safe consumption spaces are physical environments where people bring previously purchased drugs. There's no sharing, there's nothing passed between people,” said Susan Sherman, professor of health behavior and society at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Sherman is one of the authors of the report published in the Harm Reduction Journal. The study was conducted by researchers at Johns Hopkins University, the Law Enforcement Action Partnership, the Criminal Justice Policy Foundation, and the University of British Columbia.

Supervised injection facilities are a controversial concept being discussed in several major U.S. cities. Tackling the opioid epidemic by providing addicts with a safe space to shoot up may seem counterintuitive, but the study uses data to show the opposite.

Read the entire story.

Note from the Commissioner: Providing for Public Health

May 26th, 2017

One of the biggest challenges in public health is securing funding for life-saving interventions. It is easy to envision a person saved in the E.R. or a person recovering with treatment from medicine prescribed, but what is the face of prevention? It is much more difficult point to someone who could have potentially been sick, but ultimately was not because of a successful public health program.

The federal budget cuts proposed this week will harm the health and well-being of hundreds of thousands of Baltimoreans, including seniors, children, and people with chronic illnesses.

Subscribe to the Bmore Healthy newsletter.

Baltimore unveils Zika preparedness plan (WBAL)

May 25th, 2017

Baltimore City officials Tuesday announced they are taking a citywide approach to combat the spread of Zika virus and other mosquito-borne illnesses. 

The Zika virus is spread by mosquito bites or unprotected sex and is linked to serious birth defects.

“Ensuring that our city is safe from mosquitos and the diseases that they carry is dependent upon the collaboration of residents, community organizations, businesses, and city agencies,” Mayor Catherine Pugh said in a statement. “I encourage everyone to do their part to help keep our loved ones healthy.”

 Health officials said there have been 5,274 confirmed cases of Zika in the U.S., including 224 locally-transmitted cases in Florida and Texas, through April. There have been 15 cases reported in Baltimore, all of which included individuals who traveled to an area with active Zika transmission and contracted the virus there.

Read the entire story.

Trump’s budget makes it official: he’s doing little to nothing about the opioid epidemic (Vox)

May 25th, 2017

Tens of thousands of people will likely die of drug overdoses under President Donald Trump’s watch, as America’s horrific opioid epidemic continues. Yet with his first big policy document — the 2018 budget proposal — Trump is proving that he’ll do little to nothing about the crisis.

If anything, Trump’s proposal could make the opioid epidemic worse. Where the budget does anything of significance regarding the epidemic, it comes through cuts to the office in charge of coordinating drug policy, Medicaid, public health programs, and more. And there is nothing in the budget to balance out the cuts — leaving a crater in the government’s response to a crisis that led to more than 33,000 opioid overdose deaths and more than 52,000 total drug overdose deaths in 2015.

 Read the entire story.

Baltimore braces for spread of mosquito-borne Zika (Baltimore Sun)

May 25th, 2017

As mosquito season nears, the heads of Baltimore's departments of health, housing and public works unveiled efforts Tuesday to help prevent mosquito-borne illnesses, including Zika, which can lead to birth defects.

Led by Health Commissioner Dr. Leana Wen, city officials outlined plans to try and keep Baltimore free of trash, clear storm drains and look for improper grading at the city's public housing complexes that can lead to free-standing water where mosquitoes breed.

There are also efforts to educate residents about how to protect themselves from mosquito bites, the most effective way to prevent the spread of the virus. There is no cure for the disease, though scientists around the world are working on a vaccine. 

Officials urged residents to use mosquito repellent and remove free-standing water from near their homes. A soda cap of water is enough for a mosquito to lay eggs, several said.

Watch the entire segment.

President Trump’s Proposed Federal Budget Harms the Health of Baltimoreans (Center Maryland)

May 25th, 2017

The federal budget proposal released on Tuesday by President Trump cuts life-saving services and will harm the health and well-being of hundreds of thousands of Baltimoreans. It will particularly affect the following individuals:

Seniors: One hundred thousand Baltimore City residents are over the age of 60, and 1 in 6 of these residents live below the poverty line. Cuts to Medicaid—which covers services that Medicare does not—could leave these seniors without prescription drugs, glasses, and hearing aids. The budget also makes cuts to essential programs like nursing home care and Meals on Wheels, which provides more than 187,000 meals to Baltimore older adults in their homes in each year.

Children: Eighty thousand children in Baltimore depend on Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) for medical care. By cutting Medicaid, removing the enhanced federal match rate for CHIP, and capping reimbursement for CHIP services, the proposed budget will limit the ability of children to get basic health services such as immunizations and treatment for asthma.

Read entire op-ed.

Funding may halt effective Safe Streets program (WBAL TV 11)

May 25th, 2017

Some in Baltimore want to expand the Safe Streets Program, but, once again, it finds itself up against the wall for funding. Why is that when the program has had clear results?

A fight is breaking out on east Baltimore street, but the guys running to intervene are there to de-escalate it. A woman with a shovel is arguing with a man.

Someone knocks our camera away, but the I-Team still watched the situation brought under control.

"The main thing that we did was really cool everybody down. We actually got the guy to take a ride, just leave," Safe Streets Outreach worker Alex Long said.

Long' s job and that of his co-workers is to step into simmering conflict before violence breaks out.

Watch the entire segment. 

Pages