The doors opened at 5 a.m. And for more than 12 hours a day last Friday and Saturday, hundreds of Georgians received cleanings, fillings, extractions, dentures and root canals, along with information about dental health — all delivered free of charge. The two-day free clinic in Norcross, in northeast metro Atlanta, treated more than 1,600…
More than 100 patients at Gwinnett Medical Center are being urged to get screened for tuberculosis after potentially being exposed to a hospital employee with an active case of the disease. Officials at the Lawrenceville hospital said Tuesday that 133 patients were certain or likely to have had contact with the employee from Feb. 1…
Haegan Altizer is all about bicycling. He’s a state biking champion and works in sales at the Bicycle South store in Decatur. Altizer, 17, sees good and bad in the bike-friendliness of metro Atlanta. “Atlanta is not too bad, but it could be better for commuters,’’ Altizer tells GHN. “I’m from Decatur, and Decatur is…
Becky Carver, public health nurse for the health district based in Waycross, works with perinatal partners to educate expectant parents about safe sleeping practices. “An infant’s death is heartbreaking,’’ Carver says. “I’ve seen losses. In the Deep South, we see things like inadequate bedding, babies and parents sleeping together in recliners, and over-bundling on hot…
Public health officials are investigating iced tea among other menu items at a Stephens County barbecue restaurant as the possible source of a major E. coli outbreak that has sickened as many as 18 people. Eleven people have been confirmed to have E. coli infection, and seven others are probable cases, though their illness has…
Georgia is ranked 43rd in a first-of-its-kind state ranking of seniors’ health status. Overall, Southern states scored low in the report from the nonprofit United Health Foundation. Tennessee came in 41st, Alabama 44th, Kentucky 45th, Arkansas 46th, Louisiana 48th and Mississippi 50th. The report focuses on 34 measures of senior health, including physical inactivity, obesity, self-reported…
Betting on Reno (Editor’s Note: This is the fourth in a series of articles on the Athens uninsured initiative, produced by graduate students in the Health and Medical Journalism Program at the University of Georgia. Visit the previous articles by clicking on the red button to the left.) More and more Americans, especially in rural…
Overweight patients are being encouraged to take a walk, if not a hike. A unique collaboration between the Georgia Association of Physician Assistants (GAPA) and Georgia State Parks seeks to promote physical fitness in a fresh-air way. For a day trip to one of Georgia’s state parks, there’s normally a $5 parking fee. But nowadays,…
A new national report card on diabetes care shows that many Americans with diabetes are not meeting their goals for controlling the disease. Mohammed K. Ali, professor of Global Health at Emory University’s Rollins School of Public Health, led a CDC team that analyzed the health data of people with diabetes from 1999 to 2010….
One in five Georgia adults meets the aerobic and muscle-strengthening guidelines for physical activity, equaling the national average, according to a CDC report released Thursday. Georgia’s 20.7 percent of physically fit made it third in the Southeast. Only Virginia, at 22.7 percent, and Florida, at 21.4 percent, did better among states in the region. Tennessee…