The Iron County Wisconsin Health Department is here to serve the residents of Iron County Wisconsin by protecting health, protecting the enviroment,and preventing disease and injury.

♥ FEBRUARY IS AMERICAN HEART MONTH ♥

During the month of February, Americans see the human heart as the symbol of love. February is American Heart Month, a time to show yourself the love. Learn about your risks for heart disease and stroke and stay "heart healthy" for yourself and your loved ones.
Take It One Step at a Timecan control a number of risk factors for CVD, including:

♥Plan for Prevention

♥ Work with your health care team.

Get a checkup at least once each year.

♥ Monitor your blood pressure.

High blood pressure often has no symptoms, so be sure to have it checked on a regular basis.

♥ Get your cholesterol checked.

♥ Eat a healthy diet.

Eat plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables-adults should have at least five servings each day. Eating foods low insaturated fat, trans fat, and cholesterol and high in fiber.

♥ Maintain a healthy weight.calculate a number called body mass index (BMI)

♥ Exercise regularly.

The Surgeon General recommends that adults should engage in moderate-intensity activity for at least 150 minutes per week.

♥ Don't smoke.

♥ Limit alcohol use.

Women to have no more than one

♥ Manage your diabetes.

♥ Take your medicine.

MAJOR MEASLES OUTBREAK  SHOWS WHY VACCINATIONS ARE SO IMPORTANT

Hurley, WI -  Wisconsin is surrounded by states that have experienced a measles outbreak.

"One of the best ways to protect the health of our families is to get vaccinated against diseases that can cause serious illness and complications," said Zona Wick, Iron County Health Officer. "By getting vaccinated, we are looking out for our children's classmates, people we work with, our neighbors - our communities."

The measles outbreak has not only affected Disneyland visitors, but 14 states, and a Chicago day care.  Infants do not receive their first MMR until 12 months of age.  This means these children are very vulnerable to a potentially life threatening illness.  "To protect these children we need to focus on "herd immunity", that means if the rest of us have had the vaccine and are protected, we will not get the disease, and so as a result cannot pass it to these children."  Wick said.

The good news in Wisconsin is that we have done a pretty good job of encouraging parents to vaccinate their children and this shows in the data we retrieved from the Wisconsin Immunization Registry (WIR).  We track the immunizations of all Iron County children up to age two and found that 94% of them have had their first MMR.  Children receive the second does when they go to pre-k or kindergarten.  We also keep track of the immunizations in the schools and our records indicate that 95.8% of Hurley K-12 students have had their immunizations and 97.2% of Mercer K-12 School students have had their immunizations.  In Iron county only 29 parents have signed waivers due to health, religious, or personal reasons why they choose not to vaccinate their children.

Measles begins with cold-like symptoms, including a cough, runny nose, high temperature and red, watery eyes. By the second day after onset, a red, blotchy rash appears at the hairline and spreads to the arms and legs. Complications can include ear infections, pneumonia, encephalitis and death.

To check on which immunizations you and your family need, visit the Wisconsin Immunization Registry (WIR).

Zona Wick, MS, BSN,RN

Health Officer/ Iron County Health Department

502 Copper St. #2

Hurley, WI 54534

715-561-2191

CDC recommends vaccination amid measles outbreak

• The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the White House urged parents to vaccinate themselves and children as the once-eliminated virus continues to spread.

• Measles - Linked to a California Amusement Park

Understanding Vaccines - http://www.publichealth.org/public-awareness/understanding-vaccines/

The 2015 Childhood Immunization Schedule is now available online. Every year, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) develops recommendations for routine use of vaccines in children, adolescents, and adults. When adopted by the CDC Director, they become official CDC/HHS policy. The Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report will publish a summary of childhood schedule changes in early February.  However, all of the 2015 figures, footnotes, and tables for the childhood schedule are currently available on the CDC website.

CDC has also updated the following parent-friendly schedules to reflect the new 2015 recommended immunization schedule:

• For children from birth through age 6
• For pre-teens and teens from 7 through 18 years old

CDC encourages organizations to syndicate content rather than copy a PDF version of the schedule onto their websites to share with visitors. Content syndication allows other organizations' websites to mirror CDC web content, with automatic updates whenever changes are made on the CDC site. This helps ensure that all schedules are current across the Internet. See how to display the schedules on your site.

The 2015 adult schedule is set to be published on the CDC website on February 3. Until then, the 2014 schedule will remain on the website.

We encourage you to share this information with your members by forwarding this message and/or by using social media to spread the message about the new schedules.

Healthy Living with Diabetes

Diabetes is a chronic, life-long, on-going condition. While you may see a physician or another health care provider several times a year, most days you are the one who controls your diabetes through monitoring, nutrition, exercise and managing your symptoms. Healthy Living with Diabetes is a researched and proven program designed to help you do that.

What is Healthy Living with Diabetes?

This workshop is designed to help adults with type 2 diabetes or pre-diabetes learn self-management skills and increase their confidence in managing their diabetes.The workshop meets once a week for six weeks - 2-1/2 hours each session.Healthy Living with Diabetes complements existing treatments a participant receives.

Who should take the workshop?

• Adults with type 2 diabetes,

• Adults with pre-diabetes, or

• Adults living with someone who has diabetes

People who take this workshop:

Learn techniques to deal with the symptoms of diabetes.Learn about appropriate exercise, use of medication and healthy eating strategies.Report improved health, health behavior, and a sense of confidence in managing their diabetesShow improvements in blood sugar levels and a decrease in health distress and hypo- and hyperglycemia Feel more confident in their ability to communicate with physicians Have fewer doctor and emergency room visits and fewer hospitalizations

Workshop Information

6 consecutive Wednesdays

April 8, April 15, April 22, April 29, May 6 and May 13, 2015

1:00-3:30 pm

Iron County Court House

The workshop is FREE thanks to a UPCAP Diabetes PATH  grant Pre-registration is necessary

Please call the Iron County Health Department at 715- 561-2191 to register

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DHS. WISCONSIN.GOV

FACT SHEET ON OUR NEW WEBSITE

The Wisconsin Department of Health Services has upgraded our website to better serve Wisconsin citizens. Our agency meets many different needs-but as a whole we are here to protect and promote the health and safety of the people of Wisconsin. A modern, well‐designed, and more responsive website will help us to achieve that.

We are using a web development tool called Drupal that has been adopted widely across both business and government. Drupal is an open source web content management system with an active development community. In other words, it is a free tool for building websites that has caught on as a practical and innovative solution worldwide.

The user experience is extremely important to us, and this upgrade has allowed us to greatly improve it.

**We studied how people navigate and why they come to   the website-and applied what we learned. Overall, visitors to our website should find it less complicated to browse, search, and find what they want.

**We are also using best practices for design. The new look is uncluttered and easier on the user's eyes.

**Our website is now optimized for mobile, which means you can view our site on any device with ease.

**We continue our ongoing agency commitment to accessibility and compliance with federal regulation, sec