Latest News

public health information

Spend Two Hours Per Week Outdoors For Better Health

Spending 2 hours a week or more outdoors can improve your health People who spend at least 120 minutes in nature a week are significantly more likely to report good health and higher psychological well-being than people who spent less than 120 minutes outdoors, according to a new study conducted at the University of Exeter Medical School. (more…)

Vaccines Necessary to Keep Your Kids Safe This Summer

Children will be spending a majority of their time outdoors and in close proximity with each other during the summer. They can easily be exposed to vaccine-preventable diseases in the summer camp setting. (more…)

Pennsylvanians Most at Risk for Lyme Disease

Pennsylvania has the most tick-borne diseases in the country, according to the Center for Disease Control. In 2017 there were 11,900 reported cases of Lyme disease in Pennsylvania, according to data from lymedisease.org. Ticks that carry Lyme disease have been found in each county. (more…)

Protecting Your Children from Measles Outbreak

More than 1,00 people have contracted measles in the U.S. in 2019, according to the most recent Center for Disease Control and Prevention report. This is the largest measles outbreak in 25 years, a dramatic increase from the 372 cases in 2018. (more…)

Suicide Rate Doubles for Children of Opioid Users

Children of parents who use opioids have twice the suicide rate of other children, according to researchers from the Universities of Chicago and Pittsburgh. Nearly 700 children whose parents had filled opioid prescriptions in the last year attempted suicide while only 212 children whose parents had not used opioids tried to commit suicide, out of the 330,000 total children in the study, published in Psychiatry, an American Medical Association journal. These findings demonstrate that, independent of age, sex, location, or parental history of suicide attempts, parental opioid use doubles the risk for suicide attempts by their children. (more…)