Georgia Unemployment Rate In Double Digits

Nearly a half a million Georgians are out of work. The Department of Labor released its June unemployment figures today. The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate is at 10.1 percent—the highest ever recorded in the state.

"We are continuing to see lay off in construction, manufacturing, really across all sectors," says Labor Commissioner Michael Thurmond, "except of course health care and education."

In June, 483,394 Georgians were looking for work.

Thurmond calls on Georgia leaders to engage the private sector to create jobs. He also encourages the unemployed to seek more education and training to prepare for future jobs.

"Green jobs is a growing industry, ways to save energy, maximize potential in that arena," says Thurmond. "I think manufacturing, but with a more highly skilled work force will create employment opportunity in the future."

Right now about a third of jobless Georgians receive unemployment benefits from the state. Georgia's unemployment rate is worse than the nation's. It's at 9.5 percent.

Georgia Participates in Health Grant

The University of Florida is getting $26 million from the National Institutes of Health to speed up scientific discovery and medical advances to patients. Florida officials say the effort involves 12 of the university's 16 colleges, the Institutes of Food and Agricultural Sciences, the North Florida-South Georgia Veterans Affairs Health System and Shands HealthCare. The university announced the award Tuesday in Gainesville. UF is the only Florida university to get the award, but seven other institutions are also receiving the funding this year.

(Associated Press)

Restaurant Inspection Information Site On The Way

A new Web site that would allow restaurant-goers to get better information on health inspection reports is on the way. State health officials say the Georgia Enviromental Health Information System site will include inspection forms with specific violations and inspector notes, allowing consumers to better understand what a health inspection score means. A state health spokesperson says the site should be available sometime near year’s end.

Georgia's First Swine Flu Death

Georgia health officials have reported the state's first swine flu death - a 43-year-old Cobb County woman. The Georgia Department of Community Health confirmed the death Friday and said the woman had underlying medical conditions, but did not immediately release additional information. The number of U.S. swine flu cases has surpassed 37,000 and deaths hit 211. Officials believe those cases - which sought treatment and underwent testing - are just the tip of the iceberg. They estimate more than 1 million Americans have been infected with the virus, though many probably had only mild illness.

(Associated Press)

Coastal Georgia Goes Smoke-Free

The College of Coastal Georgia has banned the use of tobacco on campus. The rule applies to students, faculty, staff and visitors - making the college one of 160 in the nation to go totally tobacco-free. The president of Coastal Georgia, which is transitioning from a two-year community college into the state's newest four-year school, said the college as focused on raising awareness through signs, information on its Web site and a partnership with local health agencies to offer smoking cessation classes to faculty and staff.

(Associated Press)

Georgia's Preparedness Questioned

Georgia's preparedness to prevent and contain public health threats has been questioned in an examination by the Atlanta-Journal Constitution. The paper examined Georgia's public health system by reviewing documents from the state, federal agencies and nonprofit groups. It says the information depicts a system that lacks sufficient money and, at times, basic competencies.

Georgia recently tied for sixth-worst among 56 states and territories when federal officials evaluated readiness for public health emergencies and it ranks 39th among the states in public
health spending per resident. In another troubling ranking, the state's public health laboratory could identify the sources of fewer than four in 10 foodborne illness outbreaks from 2004 to 2006. That was the 35th-lowest rate in the country.

UGA Public Health College Certified

The University of Georgia's four-year-old College of Public Health has gained full accreditation. It now gives UGA one of the 41 colleges of public health nationwide approved by the Council on Education for Public Health. It’s also the only accredited public health college in the University System of Georgia, and only the second in the state, along with Emory University.

The nod from the council means the 600-student program at UGA meets the highest standards of quality for training professionals to work in public health fields.

The UGA Public Health Dean says the program will help train workers to replace an expected surge in the number of people retiring from the field. He says the average age of a public health worker in Georgia is 50.

(Associated Press)

July Opens With Bevy of New Georgia Laws

89 new laws take effect today, or ahead on January 1st. They include the massive overhaul of Georgia’s health and social service agencies. Identified by lawmakers and Governor Sonny Perdue as lacking in several areas, especially mental health, the restructuring begins today. Essentially three agencies will now handle the work previously done by two--adding one dedicated to mental health delivery.

Among some of the other laws ushered-in with the arrival of July:
-A pair of laws in the courtroom to strengthen victim’s rights.

-Embryos can now be adopted. The legal custodian of the embryos will decide how and where they are stored, along with whether they can be disposed of. Some medical doctors, researchers and biotech financers opposed the legislation, saying it could hinder reproductive treatments and innovations in the state.

-A new measure now designates April as Confederate History Month.

DHR Re-organization Begins Today

Governor Sonny Perdue has high hopes for the restructuring of health and social service agencies in the state. That begins today with the arrival of the new fiscal year.

Basically, the sweeping changes will spread the services previously handled by two agencies—Department of Human Resources and the Department of Community Health—to three. The main reason is to help Georgia to get a better handle on its failings in mental health, which has been under the federal microscope over the past year.

Governor Perdue says he’s confident of future success for the newly-created Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities:

"I firmly believe by separating these functions organizationally, the resulting standalone department focused on mental health will be a nimble, flexible and responsive unit…better able to fully implement the commission’s recommendations."

Advocates are hopeful, yet worried about whether the state’s continued budget crisis will cripple the effort.

Perdue says other areas of concern, like access to vital records, should be better handled in the new set-up.

Michael Vick Will Work With Young People

Suspended NFL Star Michael Vick is leaving a job with a Virginia construction company to work with youngsters at Boys & Girls Clubs. Steven Kast, CEO of the Boys & Girls Clubs of the Virginia Peninsula, says Vick will be working with children on health and fitness activities at several clubs in the Hampton Roads area. Vick was a regular at the Boys & Girls Club in Newport News as a youngster. Vick needed a job to meet the conditions of his probation and had been working as a $10-an-hour laborer. Vick, whose lawyers were in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Norfolk on Tuesday, is in house arrest for the last two months of a nearly two-year sentence for operating a dogfighting ring. His lawyers say a new bankruptcy plan gives creditors more of his future earnings.

(Associated Press)

Swine Flu Vaccine Could Fall Short

A potential fall swine flu immunization campaign may involve an unprecedented 600 million doses of vaccine, but health officials are still trying to figure out how to find enough workers to administer all those shots. Although about 300 million people live in the U.S., health officials say children and some adults may need two doses of the vaccine. And, officials are also looking at how to keep track of side effects if the swine flu shot is given at the same time as the seasonal vaccine. That could make it difficult to figure out which vaccine was causing the side effects. At a Friday meeting of a national vaccine advisory committee, officials said a swine flu campaign could far eclipse the roughly 115 million doses of seasonal flu vaccine and the 150 million doses of childhood vaccines distributed each year.

(Associated Press)

State Ag Officials Look To Revoke Pest Company License

State agriculture officials are working to pull the license of a pest control company that treats more than 100 healthcare facilities in Georgia.

At issue is how the company, Biotech Systems of Georgia, applied the pesticide Termindor, says Jim Harron with the State Agriculture department:

"It's not a question of training in the case of Termidor, this material should not have been used indoors--period."

It's only an outdoor product, but Harron’s says his office found it in patient rooms and food areas in all eight of the first nursing homes tested in May.

Since then, officials found discrepancies in records the company sent to the state for review.

Now, with the help of state health care officials, Harron says work is being done to examine other nursing homes handled by Biotech:

"We'll work with the nursing homes in getting them proper cleanup procedures, and getting them advice on how they can clean them up."

Harron says the Georgia Agriculture Department is working towill revoke the company’s license.

Georgia Gazette Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Join host Rickey Bevington tonight for Georgia Gazette. On tonight's show… Skyrocketing health care costs in Georgia... a new reports explains why. Thousands of Georgia veterans at risk for HIV and other diseases. Is the VA to blame? We visit the Georgia Dome's first natural grass field.These stories and more tonight on Georgia Gazette at 6, 7 in Athens, re-broadcast at 11, hear our show any time at www.gpb.org/georgiagazette , and download a free podcast on iTunes.

New Report Shows High Mercury Levels In Fish Downstream Of Augusta

The South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control say that anglers should not eat any large-mouth bass caught in the portion of the Savannah River south of Augusta.

They have put up warning signs because too much mercury can cause damage to internal organs. On the Georgia side, there are no such warnings.

Sonya Bonitatibus is a spokesperson for the environmental group Savannah River Keeper. She says that Georgia trails South Carolina when it comes to warning its citizens about mercury levels in the river.

"There is nothing in law stating that they have to restrict the amounts of mercury that are being put in the Savannah River. South Carolina does recognize that there is a problem. A good way to notice that is when you go on the South Carolina side they have the fish advisory warnings, the big signs sitting there right on the boat landings. Georgia does not offer that to it’s citizens."

The data used in the report was compiled over a 3 year period and involved testing 15 different species of fish.

It shows that further up river in Augusta it’s okay to eat fish. The mercury levels are significantly lower.

The Savannah River Keeper speculates that the mercury comes from various chemical industries on the south side of town.

New Study Shows High Rate of HIV/AIDS In Augusta Area

A new interactive online map shows more than 7 percent of people living in Richmond and Burke counties have the HIV virus.

According to the study's authors at the National Minority Quality Forum, the 13-county East Central Health District has the third highest number of reported AIDS cases in the state.

The new database gives a closer look at Georgia's infection rates because it breaks government records of HIV/AIDS cases down by county. That’s something that state reports don’t do.

Sandra Wimberly is a spokesperson for the East Central Health District which includes Richmond and Burke counties. She says that the fear of being seen at a testing facility might cause some to forgo being tested, especially in tight-knit communities.

"When you have smaller counties with less population and everybody knows everybody….there’s more stigma associated with smaller areas or rural counties."

Officials say that 79 percent of the people who reported having HIV or AIDS are African American. Of the 17-hundred infected men nearly half were infected through sex with men.

National H.I.V. testing day is this Saturday.

Free H.I.V. tests will be available throughout the Augusta area and across the state.

State WIC Director Investigated

The state director of the Women, Infants, and Children program is on administrative leave with an investigation underway over accusations of mismanagement and law-breaking. The head of Georgia’s Division of Public Health says Candace Jones, who’s led the program for two years, is on paid leave while the probe continues. Officials would not disclosure the nature of the accusations. WIC is a $250-million federally-funded program that gives monthly vouchers for grocery items such as cereal, eggs and milk.

Hospital Plans Expansion

Tanner Health System is planning a $50 million expansion at the Carrollton facility, with work to begin in September. The system plans to add the first floor of a three- to four-story tower to house a new emergency department, expand its parking deck and add space to expand its surgical capability. The expansion will include a new helipad to accommodate the increased number of air transports. The expansion has been on the wish list for some time. The Carrollton facility has seen more and more patients, both in the emergency room and the surgical unit. The hospital started seeing a large increase in visits as it developed its heart program.

(Associated Press)

VA Hearings On HIV Exposure Begin Tuesday

A House subcommittee meets tomorrow in Washington with the Department of Veterans Affairs--at issue is the concern that more than 10,000 veterans may have been exposed to HIV at an Augusta VA hospital and two others in the Southeast. VA officials plan to tell committee members how mistakes made with endoscopic equipment raised health concerns over the past few months. Along with the VA hospital in Augusta, facilities in Miami and Murfreesboro-Tennessee are also under review for the problems.

Coca-Cola Zero Banned in Venezuela

Atlanta based Coca-Cola is facing a ban in Venezuela. The country is shunning the product Coca-Cola Zero because they say it contains an artificial sweetener allegedly harmful to the health. Venezuela’s health ministry said in a statement tests show the no calorie soft drink contains sodium cyclamate.

The US prohibits the use of cyclamates in human food because of health safety concerns.

Coca-Cola Company's use of the sweetener in Coca-Cola Zero has met with resistance elsewhere in Latin America.

A spokesperson for the company's local affiliate says Coca-Cola Zero in Venezuela does not contain the sweetener or any other harmful ingredients, but they’re complying with the order to halt production.

(Associated Press)

CDC says Government Ready for Swine Flu

U.S. health officials say they won't need to change their response now that swine flu has been declared a pandemic. Officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Thursday that the government has already been treating the outbreak like a pandemic. Flu medicine has been sent out to states and money has been poured into a possible vaccination program. Since the first cases of swine flu were reported in April, scientists have found the virus is not much worse than the seasonal flu. The CDC's new chief, Dr. Thomas Frieden, says that should help keep people from overreacting to the pandemic declaration. More than 13,000 Americans have gotten swine flu. So far, there have been at least 27 deaths.

(Associated Press)