Ham Recall: Food Illness Outbreak!

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) recalled 90,000 pounds of ham. Johnston County Hams recalled five different ham products Tuesday. The contaminated meat product got distributed to Maryland, North Carolina, New York, South Carolina, and Virginia. These are the products:

• Country Style Fully Cooked Boneless Deli Ham

• Ole Fashioned Sugar Cured The Old Dominion Brand Hams Premium Fully Cooked Country Ham

• Padow’s Hams & Deli, Inc. Fully Cooked Country Ham Boneless Glazed With Brown Sugar

• Premium Fully Cooked Country Hamm Less Salt

• Goodnight Brothers Country Ham Boneless Fully Cooked

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) led an epidemiological investigation of listeriosis after reports from the FSIS. Through the combined efforts of local state departments and the CDC, the outbreak link is between illness and Johnston Country Ham products. The recall stemmed from ham products possibly exposed to Listeria monocytogenes. Listeria is one of the most common foodborne illness-causing agents. This example continues the streak of the foodborne illness outbreaks in the U.S. My last blog touched more on this public health issue.

For news about this outbreak check out:

https://www.newsweek.com/almost-90000-pounds-ham-recalled-possible-listeria-contamination-one-death-1152506

For more information on the foodborne illness, outbreak checks my last post.

https://healthmap.wordpress.com/2018/10/03/food-borne-illness-outbreaks-a-public-health-problem/

Do Socioeconomic Factors Influence Texans’ Decision to Get Vaccinated? – A cartographic Approach

Texas has one of the highest vaccination rates for childhood diseases overall, 97.4%, according to CDC. But the number of children not vaccinated because of their parents’ “personal beliefs”—as opposed to medical reasons—has risen since 2003, when such exemptions were introduced, to more than 44,000 so far in 2017 according to CDC. The 4:3:1:3:3:1:4 series is an overall measure that encompasses many vaccines that are recommended for children. Various demographic factors (sex, gender, race, availability of commercial health insurance) influence the decision to get vaccinated, were looked at.

The county-level data on the socioeconomic factors were obtained from US Census Bureau (American Factfinder). The health insurance data was obtained from Small Area Health Insurance Estimates (SAHIE). The vaccination rates were obtained from Texas Immunization registry through DSHS. The data was cleaned and geocoded to be analyzed in ArcGIS to produce maps as shown in Figure 1. Pearson’s correlation coefficient was used to analyze the relationship between vaccination rates and independent variable.

The non-vaccination rates are higher around the major cities of Dallas, Austin-San Antonio, Houston and some northwest Texas counties. Population density has a positive correlation with the non-vaccination rate. Other demographic factors have a positive correlation in certain counties as opposed to others.

 

Source: American FactFinder, Texas Immunisation Registry

The limitation on the immunization data is it being an optional registry so it would not be accurate to run statistics off this information to estimate an immunization rate. In future, it is productive to expand this concept to use regression analysis to try to find the odds of the relationship expressed in the maps and to find if there is a significant association.

Medicare Part D Opioid Prescribing Rate by Zip code Tennessee 2014

Medicare beneficiaries have the option of enrolling in Medicare Part D to get assistance with covering the cost of their prescriptions drugs. Medicare Part D is not automatically include and is available in two ways, if you have Medicare Part A or Part B. Check out this map that shows the Medicare Part D opioid prescribing rate in Tennessee for the year of 2014 at the zipcode level.

For further information regarding opioids click here.

By Julia Watson

Buprenorphine Treatment Practitioners – 2017

Check out this map that shows physicians authorized to treat opioid dependency with buprenorphine by state as of 2017. From the map we can a large clusters of practitioners providing buprenorphine treatment practice in the southern and eastern states and in western states such as California. Why might this be?

By Julia Watson

Rural Status Health Facility Sites – National Loan Repayment Sites 2017

A National Health Service Corps (NHSC) Site is an approved health care facility that provides healthcare to populations residing in Health Professional Shortage Areas (HPSAs). Check out this heat density map which shows the number of NHSC rural health facility sites. Healthcare providers who work at these sites are eligible to have some of their student loans forgiven. From the map we can see highly concentrated areas in Southern, Northeastern and some Midwestern states.

Source: Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA)
Data Warehouse. Accessed on 10/11/2017 https://datawarehouse.hrsa.gov/tools/DataPortalResults.aspx

National Community Mapping Institute
Health Disparities Research Center of Excellence
Meharry Medical College

By Julia Watson

Federal Bureau of Prison Sites- National Loan Repayment Locations 2017

A National Health Service Corps (NHSC) Site is an approved health care facility that provides healthcare to populations residing in Health Professional Shortage Areas (HPSAs). Check out this density map which shows the total number of federal bureau of prison sites that are designated as national loan repayment locations. Eligible health care professionals that work at these sites receive a certain amount each year towards their school loans. From the map we see there are highly concentrated areas in the southeast and northeast regions of the country.

 

By Michael Paul

Rate of Self Reported Pesticide Related Illness By State 2014

 

Today’s map shows the rate of self reported pesticide related illness by state for the year of 2014 per 100,000 person. From the map we can see some states had rates ranging as low as 0.00 to 0.27 indicated by the yellow shading. In contrast some states, such as Alaska, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, New York, Kansas and Virginia had rates as high as 0.87 to 2.56 indicated by the dark blue shading. However, its important to note that because these are self-reported rates the date is subjected to under-reporting. In addition, because these exposures are self-reported both the type of pesticide and the degree of illness associated with the exposure may be mis-classified since the designation by the poison control center for both is based on the description provided by the caller.

According to the CDC farmworkers are among those when are subjected to pesticide exposure. For more information on migrant workers click here.

By Julia Watson

9/11 Dust Resulted in Higher Levels of Cholesterol

Researchers from the New  York University School of Medicine, New York State Department of Health and other public institutions analyzed the effects of various chemical contaminants and carcinogens which entered homes via dust clouds post the 9/11 tack. What was discovered was interesting. Researchers discovered participants who were exposed to the contaminants had higher levels of triglycerides, total cholesterol and low-density lipoprotein, also known as the “bad” cholesterol. So even post the 9/11 attacks we are still see its negative health effects. For more information click here.

By Julia Watson

Percent of Uninsured Living with HIV By County 2014 (Ages 13 and Older)

Check out this map which shows the percent of people living with HIV who were uninsured by county for the year of 2014 ages 13 and older. From the map we can see that a large portion of counties within Hawaii, the north east, and some midwest states had some of the lowest percentages of people with HIV who where uninsured indicated by the yellow shading. In contrast states in the south and west had some of the highest percentages of people living with HIV who were uninsured.  We can see Alaska and Texas were predominantly shaded dark, indicating percentages ranging as high as 19 to 39.

By Julia Watson

Percent of Severe Housing Problems By County (2008 to 2012)

Today’s map of the day shows the percent of severe housing problems by county for years 2008 to 2012. Severe housing problems was defined as households with at least 1 of 4 housing problems including: overcrowding, high housing cost, or lack of kitchen or plumbing facilities. From the map we can see a large portion of counties within Alaska and some western states, such as California, Arizona, New Mexico, Oregon, Washington have a higher percentage of severe housing problems indicated by the dark shaded counties compared to counties within other regions, such as the Midwest.

By Julia Watson