Author: Jim

Dog Walker Death

CBSPhilly:

On Tuesday, the medical examiner’s office said Justice died of blunt impact injury to the head.

The investigation is ongoing and no arrests have been made at this time.

https://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/2019/01/08/man-killed-over-argument-about-unleashed-dog-ruled-homicide/

Inquirer:

The Philadelphia Medical Examiner’s Office on Tuesday said the death of 38-year-old Drew Justice, who died Saturday after being punched once in an altercation with another dog walker in a South Philly park, was a homicide.

http://www.philly.com/news/drew-justice-homicide-dog-walker-south-philly-gold-star-park-20190108.html

By Tommy Rowan

WHYY:

The Philadelphia Medical Examiner’s Office confirmed that Justice died of “blunt impact trauma” to the head.

https://whyy.org/articles/suspect-in-death-of-south-philly-dog-walker-held-on-manslaughter-charge/

By Bobby Allyn

Fox29:

Justice was taken to a local hospital where he was pronounced dead.  The Philadelphia Medical Examiner’s Office ruled Justice’s death a homicide due to blunt impact trauma.

http://www.fox29.com/news/suspect-charged-in-fatal-punch-at-dog-park-in-south-philadelphia

 

Health of the City Media Coverage

Inquirer:

“What surprised me the most was the impact of the opioid crisis on our overall vital statistics,” Health Commissioner Tom Farley said Thursday. “To see life expectancy going in the wrong direction has not occurred in this country for a long time.”

http://www.philly.com/health/opioid-overdose-health-of-the-city-poverty-racial-disparities-philadelphia-20190104.html

By Aubrey Whelan

Philly Magazine:

The just-released Health of the City report found that drug overdose deaths among Philadelphia residents increased nearly four-fold in recent years, with those deaths making a resounding mark on the city’s overall life expectancy — specifically on the rate of premature deaths (those that occur before age 75).

https://www.phillymag.com/news/2019/01/04/life-expectancy-overdose-epidemic/

By Claire Sasko

WHYY:

Raynard Washington, chief epidemiologist for the Philadelphia Department of Public Health, said that disparity can be attributed primarily to poverty and social factors.

“Really underlying much of this is the social determinants of health — where people live, the environment in which they live in, their ability to be able to pay their bills, and acquire healthy food at affordable rates,” he said.

https://whyy.org/articles/biggest-health-problems-in-philadelphia-opioids-hiv-poverty/

By Alan Yu

Al Dia:

Amid a “nearly 4-fold” increase in drug overdose deaths in recent years, and a 14 percent uptick in homicides over the previous year, Philadelphia’s life expectancy declined in 2017, a report released last week by the city’s Department of Public Health found.

http://aldianews.com/articles/politics/state-and-local/philadelphia-life-expectancy-declines-due-opioid-crisis-violence

By David Maas

2018 Health of the City Report Issued

Today, Philadelphia Department of Public Health released the second Health of the City annual report, which describes the landscape of health for Philadelphia residents. Many health indicators are improving, but some indicators – particularly those related to opioid use and unhealthy behaviors – are troubling. Among the grimmest findings was that drug overdoses and homicides have caused a decline in life expectancy in Philadelphia. The latest data on teen health has good news though: cigarette use, drinking, sweetened beverage use, teen birth rates, and new cases of sexually-transmitted diseases have all continued to drop.

https://mailchi.mp/phila.gov/health-department-releases-2018-health-of-the-city-report

Toxic City Investigation Review

In December 2016, Mayor Kenney promised to add money to the city’s Lead and Healthy Homes Program. Was that promise kept?

 

The mayor added $900,000 in fiscal year 2018. Almost half, or $425,000, was used to remediate lead hazards in homes owned by people who didn’t qualify for a federal grant. Health officials also used the new money to hire 11 staffers and to purchase XRF guns (handheld X-ray fluorescent devices that detect lead paint) and vehicles for inspectors. Kenney renewed the $900,000 for this fiscal year. The city also received new federal dollars. Just this month, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development awarded Philadelphia $4.1 million to help repair or remove lead paint in 240 homes with low-income families with children.

http://www.philly.com/news/philadelphia-schools-lead-poisoning-children-reform-soil-asbestos-mold-cancer-fishtown-construction-20181227.html

By Barbara Laker, Dylan Purcell and Wendy Ruderman

Health Department Website Launch Coverage

“Being able to present critical health information in a format that works with how the public actually uses the internet today has been a key goal of ours for a long time,” said James Garrow, the health department’s director of communications. “Working with ODDT has enabled us to realize this goal and to build a website that meets the needs of Philadelphians and gives them access to all of the dozens of services the Health Department offers.”

https://technical.ly/philly/2018/12/27/get-access-to-100-services-on-the-new-website-for-phillys-health-department/

By Roberto Torres

Opioids Crisis Review

Even before the year is officially over, health officials are declaring 2018 to be a landmark in Philadelphia’s opioid crisis, marking the first time in at least five years that overdose deaths will have declined. More people sought treatment. More doses of Narcan, the lifesaving overdose reversal spray, were handed out in the city’s hardest-hit neighborhoods.

 

In short, “all the key numbers are moving in the right direction,” Health Commissioner Thomas Farley said last week.

http://www.philly.com/health/opioid-crisis-addiction-philadelphia-overdose-death-toll–20181224.html

By Aubrey Whelan

Health Department Website Launch

PHILADELPHIA–Last month, the Philadelphia Department of Public Health and Office of Open Data and Digital Transformation (ODDT) capped a nearly year-long effort to rethink, rewrite, and reorganize the web presence of the Health Department. The new website,  www.phila.gov/health, will allow residents to easily get access to information on preventing disease and living healthily, while providing direct access to nearly 100 services available to the public.

https://mailchi.mp/phila.gov/health-department-announces-launch-of-new-website

HIV Testing in Middle School Children

6ABC

[T]he Philadelphia Health Department confirms that they were working with a group called SPEAK OUT, and that this was organized though Councilman Bobby Henon’s office to offer free HIV testing for Lincoln High School students.

They set up the van at a nearby pizza place and apparently did not realize it was also near the middle school.

As for the age requirement, the Health Department says in the state of Pennsylvania, anyone who legally consents to HIV testing – no matter their age – can be tested.

https://6abc.com/health/philly-middle-school-students-offered-pizza-for-hiv-testing/4931255/

By Alicia Vitarelli

Daily Caller

Any person in the state of Pennsylvania can get tested for HIV as long as they provide consent, Garrow said.


“We, like all public health agencies, believe that everyone should know their HIV status, and will continue to make it easy for people to access these types of tests,” Garrow said. “It is regrettable that these students wandered into an HIV testing event targeted at high schoolers. This is absolutely not a case of bribing or enticing young children to submit to HIV testing in any type of coordinated fashion.”

https://dailycaller.com/2018/12/19/school-students-hiv-pizza/

By Neetu Chandak

Fox News

A health department spokesperson told Fox News in a statement that “there is no minimum age to provide consent for HIV testing.”


“Parental consent is also not required, as in 30 other states. Additionally, all of our HIV testing is anonymous. For these reasons, there was no way the testing provider could have known the age of the people presenting for testing,” the spokesperson said, adding only “a small number” of the middle school students were tested.


“It is regrettable that these students wandered into an HIV testing event targeted at high schoolers,” the statement continued. “This is absolutely not a case of bribing or enticing young children to submit to HIV testing in any type of coordinated fashion.”

https://www.foxnews.com/health/pennsylvania-middle-school-students-offered-pizza-in-exchange-for-hiv-testing-report

By Madeline Farber

Inquirer

Health department spokesperson James Garrow says these kind of outreaches are common and no reason for alarm. HIV is still a health menace, and screenings help keep those infected from unknowingly spreading the virus. I understand that.


“These events are a normal part of our work to fight the HIV epidemic,” Garrow told me in an email. “One of our providers, sponsored by us, set up this event with the intention of encouraging students from the nearby Lincoln High School to get tested for HIV. Given that one-quarter of all new infections in Philadelphia are among youth between the ages of 13 and 24, this isn’t an abnormal event.


“A number of students at Austin Meehan Middle School came to the testing event and were tested for their HIV status. Under Pennsylvania’s HIV testing law, commonly known as Act 148, there is no age limit for consenting to an HIV test, or duty to inform parents. Because our testing is anonymous, there is no way for us to have known that these students were from the middle school.”

http://www.philly.com/news/columnists/aids-hiv-philly-jenice-armstrong-philadelphia-meehan-20181221.html

By Jenice Armstong