Solano County leaders to mark National Public Health Week
Solano County will mark next week, Monday to April 7, as National Public Health Week, a time to recognize the contributions of public health and highlight issues that are important to improve our nation, county officials said.
Themed “Protecting, Connecting and Thriving: We Are All Public Health,” the week “gives us the opportunity as a community to come together and acknowledge public health successes and efforts to promote and protect health, as well as prevent disease and injury,” Dr. Bela T. Matyas, Solano County's health officer, said in a new release issued Wednesday. “We thank our public health staff for their continued dedication to promoting healthy, livable communities for Solano.”
Each day of the week will focus on a public health topic.
This year's daily themes include Monday as “civic engagement”; Tuesday as “healthy neighborhoods”; Wednesday as “climate change”; Thursday as “new tools and innovations”; Friday as “reproductive and sexual health”; Saturday as “emergency preparedness”; and Sunday as “the future of public health”, said Matthew Davis, the county's public information officer.
Davis said Solano Public Health provides a number of different services key to making the community a safe and healthy place to live. Among them are vaccination clinics, tuberculosis control, home visits for mothers and infants, preparing for public health emergencies, and WIC services through the county's Nutrition Services Bureau.
Through WIC, recipients receive support to buy nutritious food, nutrition assessments, breastfeeding education and support, and referrals to support services such as housing, medical and dental health.
Last year the program served nearly 21,000 people. Additionally, a total of 504 new WIC participants were enrolled in the program, yielding a 6 percent enrollment increase from 2022. WIC continues to be a service that helps improve the health and wellbeing of our youngest residents and their families, Davis added in the prepared statement.
Throughout the coming week and the month of April, Solano Public Health will host departmentwide events to promote the week's theme and highlight the work of its programs “that strive to address the root causes of health disparities and promote health equity for all,” wrote Davis. Events include a Walk with the Health Officer, Public Health Education and Learning sessions, Yoga and Zumba during lunch hours.
The weeklong celebration comes as county public health officials last week released information indicating tuberculosis cases increased last year locally and across California.
Solano County recorded 26 active cases of TB in 2023 and 25 in 2022, up from 18 in 2021.
Cases statewide jumped 15 percent from 1,842 in 2022 to 2,113 in 2023, an increase of 24 percent since 2020.
The statewide increase back to pre-pandemic levels is the largest for a single year in more than three decades, said Davis.
For more information, follow SolanoPublic Health on social media, including on Facebook @SolanoCountyPH and on the County's website at https://www.SolanoCounty.com/PH.