As-Salam-o-Alaikum and very warm welcome to All,

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a list of achievements of the first 10 years of the 21^st century. The 10 domestic public health achievements are published in CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR). But here we will only put some highlights on; occupational safety, prevention and control of infectious diseases, tobacco control, cardiovascular disease prevention and improved public health preparedness and response only as these relates somehow to our scope of work as well.

One of the major findings in the report is that billions of dollars are saved in health care costs as a result of these achievements. Continued investments will save more. For example, preventing motor vehicle crashes could save $99 billion in medical and lost work costs annually.

Sooner we will publish some statistical data for year 2010 for Pakistan in our coming posts.

The summary of 5 topics is given below:

Occupational Safety: The significant improvements have been observed in working conditions and the risk of workplace-associated injuries during the past decade. Examples of these improvements include patient lifting guidance for health care workers that has reduced, by 35 percent, back injuries among these workers, a comprehensive childhood agricultural injury prevention initiative, which has resulted in a 56 percent decline in farm injury rates among young people, and reductions in deaths among crab fisherman from overturned fishing vessels as the result of a Coast Guard initiative to correct stability hazards.

Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases: The first decade of the 21st century saw a 30 percent reduction in reported tuberculosis cases in the United States and a 58 percent decline in central line-associated bloodstream infections. A central line is a tube that a doctor usually places in a large vein of a patient’s neck or chest to give important medical treatment. When not put in correctly or kept clean, central lines can become a freeway for germs to enter the body and cause serious bloodstream infections. These infections can be deadly.

Other achievements included improvements in lab techniques and technology that made it easier to identify contaminated foods more rapidly and accurately to help control the spread of foodborne illness outbreaks. Broader HIV screening recommendations led to an increase in the number of people getting earlier HIV diagnosis, which provided them earlier access to live-saving treatment and care. The development of a blood donor test to screen for West Nile Virus has identified an estimated 3,000 potentially infected U.S. blood donations, removing them from the blood supply.

Tobacco Control: By 2010, FDA had banned flavored cigarettes, established restrictions on youth access to tobacco products, and proposed larger, more effective graphic warning labels. Smoking still results in an economic burden, including medical costs and lost productivity, of approximately $193 billion per year.

Cardiovascular Disease Prevention: Heart disease and stroke are still among the leading killers. However, deaths from both diseases have declined over the past decade, continuing a trend that began in the early 1900s for stroke and the 1960s for heart disease. These declines in deaths are mainly due to lower smoking rates as well as improvements in treatment, medications and quality of care, which has led to reductions in major risk factors for heart disease and stroke, such as uncontrolled high blood pressure and high cholesterol.

Improved Public Health Preparedness and Response: There has been much progress made since 2001 expanding the capacity of the public health system to respond to public health emergencies and disease outbreaks. The first decade of the 21st century also saw improvements in laboratory response for identifying and reporting disease outbreaks. In addition, influenza vaccination, along with other public health measures taken during the 2009 outbreak of H1N1, prevented an estimated 5–10 million cases, 30,000 hospitalizations, and 1,500 deaths.

Our training programs can help you in great deal to effectively manage and control more proactively above topics to make sure smooth run of your business. Our programs like, CPR, AED and First Aid, Bloodborne Pathogens, Emergency Response Planning, Substance Abuse, Occupational Health & Hygiene and many other trainings can help you save lot of money and add value to the health care system and reduction in sick leaves, day off, medical claims etc to allow you more productive time to have competitive advantage.

Stay connected with us to know about some of the stats relating to industrial accidents and injuries in Pakistan for year 2010 in our coming posts. You can subscribe to our blogs, so you don’t have to miss any post.

Thanks & Best Regards,

Faisal Javed Mir