743: CDC Foodborne Illness Report, National Recovery Month Observances

JANSON SILVERS: 

This is the award-winning Public Health Review Morning Edition for Thursday, September 5, 2024. I'm Janson Silvers. Now today's news from the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials.

RACHEL JERVIS: 

My initial thoughts in reading and reviewing this and contributing to this report is that I don't want people to read this and feel hopeless.

SILVERS: 

Rachel Jervis, with the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, is talking about a recent CDC report that says little progress has been made in reducing foodborne illness.

JERVIS: 

There are a lot of ongoing efforts to improve food safety. This involves governmental organizations at the state level, the federal level, partnerships with food production, and other industry partners. But these changes take time, and there's a lot of other things kind of impacting the numbers, making it hard to measure change.

SILVERS: 

Jervis says newer and more available testing also entails higher positive tests for foodborne illnesses, but the increase in numbers actually helps those in public health.

JERVIS: 

And because of this increased availability in testing, we think we're getting more people diagnosed than we would without these tests. And that, in and of itself, is really good for public health, because it allows us to more accurately estimate the burden of people becoming ill.

SILVERS: 

Jervis advises public health leaders to continue their vigilance and their communities will benefit from it.

JERVIS: 

They should continue doing what they're doing. Which is conducting timely and thorough foodborne disease surveillance, case interviews, outbreak detection, and outbreak response. With the asterisk that that is not as simple as I made it sound.

SILVERS: 

We have a link to the full CDC report in the show notes.

September marks the 35th Annual National Recovery Month, which is an important milestone in public health. Here's Paolo Del Vecchio, the director of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, or SAMHSA, Office of Recovery.

PAOLO DEL VECCHIO: 

So the real message is that we want to leave the public in is that recovery is possible, that hope and healing does occur, and that people are able to live full and happy lives in their communities.

SILVERS: 

SAMHSA is observing the month with several events. Today, the agency unveils the Gallery of Hope.

DEL VECCHIO: 

We're publishing Gallery of Hope on SAMHSA website. This features art from people in recovery from across the country. We received over 300 submissions, in fact, of visual art that will be depicting on this online gallery on September the 5th.

SILVERS: 

The organization also has an event today in our nation's capital.

DEL VECCHIO: 

The second thing we're doing on September the fifth is our second annual national Walk for Recovery. And this will be an event in downtown Washington, DC, where we'll be walking from Freedom Plaza, a block from the White House, to the Washington Monument. Where we'll have a rally, and again, put a spotlight on the power of recovery.

SILVERS: 

Recently, SAMHSA hosted a workforce wellness summit to help employers help those in recovery in the workforce. There are several resources for National Recovery Month on SAMHSA website, there's a link in the show notes.

Also today, ASTHO welcomes new member, Naomi Adeline-Biggs, who was recently appointed as the new public health director for the Oregon Health Authority. She has worked as a physician with the World Health Organization and most recently as a public health administrator in Polk County, Oregon. You can find her full ASTHO bio in the show notes.

Finally, this morning, ASTHO recently held a desk side briefing on respiratory virus season for the national news media. Route 50 has a new piece out that quotes Dr. Manisha Juthani of Connecticut and Sameer Vohra of Illinois from that event. You can read the article by clicking the link in the show notes.

That'll do it for today. We're back tomorrow morning with more ASTHO news and information.

I'm Janson Silvers. You're listening to the award-winning Public Health Review Morning Edition.

Have a great day.