We have an amazing opportunity for you to help us save lives across the city! Opioid overdose deaths affect everyone in our city and we need everyone to be able to save a life using the opioid overdose antidote naloxone. Sign up and join us for our first ever Election Day Naloxone Training event! There will be many opportunities to participate across the city from 7am-8pm on Tuesday, April 26th, and we need your support to make sure everybody can save a life.

In the first three quarters of 2015, overdose took the lives of more than 311 Baltimore residents, and it is estimated that nearly 19,000 people in Baltimore use heroin and are at-risk for overdosing. We believe that the first step to recovery is saving a life today so that they can get help tomorrow. That is why we launched the city-wide overdose prevention campaign Don’tDie. Part of this campaign is to hold overdose trainings everywhere and now we are expanding to elections! Since 2015, we have trained over 10,000 residents on how to save a life with naloxone. You can learn more about this campaign at dontdie.org.

Please sign-up for one of the Election Day shifts and commit to volunteering to help save lives here: http://vols.pt/jbDvWA, become trained on how to save a life, and help others learn how to save a life as well. Please email any questions you have to Kelleigh.eastman@baltimorecity.gov.

Baltimore City Health Commissioner Dr. Leana Wen today joined students, faculty, and community members at the Howard University College of Medicine for the fourth annual Dr. W. Montague Cobb Lectureship in Health Policy.

The lecture honored Dr. W. Montague Cobb, a 1929 graduate of the Howard University College of Medicine who was the first African American to earn a Ph.D in anthropology and a pioneering civil rights leader who championed the elimination of racial barriers to health care.

Throughout his career, Dr. Cobb sought to end segregation in hospitals and other medical care facilities. On behalf of the NAACP and the National Medical Association, he provided expert testimony to Congress regarding health care legislation and his testimony on Medicare was instrumental in its passage. 

Dr. Cobb served as editor of the Journal of the National Medical Association from 1949 to 1977, as well as president of the National Medical Association, the NAACP and the American Association of Physical Anthropologists.

During her lecture, Dr. Wen spoke about the vital role public health can play in combating systemic health disparities:

“Here in Baltimore, health disparities affect all aspects of life. As we approach the one year anniversary of the unrest in our city, we are reminded that violence is a result of years of racial inequality and poverty, and we must take steps to close these gaps in health care.Public health is a powerful social justice tool through which we can develop a framework to level the playing field of inequality.”

As Baltimore strives to become an HIV-free community, we must address the social stigma that fuels this epidemic that impacts so many of our residents– stigmas such as homophobia, transphobia, and serophobia.

Tonight, the Baltimore City Health Department will host Baltimore in Conversation, a red carpet event highlighting never-heard-before stories of triumphs from African American same gender loving people and their allies.  The goals are to inspire hope and to build community empathy around structural oppression and its impact on our everyday lives and health.

This free event will create space for conversation about how we can take action within our city, and ask all Baltimoreans to pledge their support as we reconsider our attitude towards the LGBTQ community and promote sexual health.

Learn more about them movement at http://www.baltimoreinconversation.com/ or https://www.facebook.com/BaltimoreInConversation/

After two full days of packing and sorting, Wednesday was the kickoff for our 5th annual Rattle & Roll event! Again this year, the B’more for Healthy Babies (BHB) Initiative has organized volunteers from the Baltimore City Health Department, Family League of Baltimore, and B’more for Healthy Babies home visiting programs to deliver free materials to sites around the city. The materials can then be distributed to clients as part of ongoing efforts to educate families about safe sleep for infants, smoke-free homes, family planning, and much more. Included in packs were information to link women to community-based programs for home visiting, weight loss, and pregnancy support.

Since the launch of B’more for Healthy Babies in 2009, the infant mortality rate in our city has reached a historic low (9.7 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2012), teen births have decreased by 33% (from 2009-2013), and sleep-related infant deaths have decreased by 50%. All of this was possible because of the unified efforts of many partners.

This year, our volunteers were better than ever, as they delivered materials to over 125 local sites and spoke to countless healthcare providers. If you are interested in receiving materials, contact Janice.Williams@baltimorecity.gov.

Thank you for joining us for the Baltimore City Health Department's latest B’More Health Talk!

These twice-monthly virtual town hall meetings are an opportunity for leaders in our community to discuss efforts to reduce health disparities, engage in our city's collaborative strategy, and share the work that organizations are doing.

We are on hold for this week, but our next HealthTalk is sure to be an interesting one! We hope you’ll join us for our next talk on Friday, April 29th, for a discussion on trauma and mental health.

As always, you can join us by calling 605-562-3180 and using the access code 117-245-291 and tweet-chat live with the hashtag #BMoreHealthTalks.

You can listen to all of our past Bmore Health Talks on our Soundcloud.  You can also watch the special webcast edition of our last Bmore Health Talks on HIV on our youtube channel.

In the meantime, we hope you will email us at bmoreheard@baltimorecity.gov with suggestions, ideas, or comments for this and future episodes.

We understand the situation with Zika virus is constantly evolving. Out of an abundance of caution, the Baltimore Department City Health Department continues to closely monitor the movement of the virus, particularly among travelers. The CDC has comprehensive Zika information available at http://www.cdc.gov/zika/. The Zika situation is constantly evolving.

We will be providing regular updates on our website at http://health.baltimorecity.gov/zika-virus and on twitter @BMore_Healthy, especially as we approach the Spring and Summer months.

Please join the Baltimore City Health Department’s HIV/STD Services Bureau as we “Take Steps to End HIV/AIDS” at the 2016 Baltimore AIDS Walk/Run on Sunday, May 1, 2016 at 8:30 am.

For more information about the event, please the Baltimore AIDS Walk/Run page. You can search for the BCHD team by typing ‘Baltimore City Health Department - HIV/STD Services’ in the search field.

Additional information will be sent out as the date for the event approaches. Forward this information along to your family and friends to participate as well.

We look forward to seeing you all on Sunday, May 1st.

Get your strut on while raising awareness about HIV/AIDS among women and girls in your community. The Purse & Pumps 1 Mile Awareness Walk will take place at Druid Hill Park’s Sundial Pavilion from 9 a.m.-12 p.m. on Saturday, May 14th. Bring your friends for a day to remember! For more information contact the BCHD STD/HIV Prevention Program: jillian.newsam@baltimorecity.gov or Vonda.colson@baltimorecity.gov