As new diseases or emergencies arise, working alongside trusted committees can help health officials quickly respond and prevent undue burden on at-risk groups such as people with disabilities, pregnant people, and children.
During the the 2021-2022 legislative sessions, several states have enacted laws addressing flu prevention efforts.
The COVID-19 pandemic has had a particularly negative impact on the mental health of adolescent girls. Fortunately, state legislators have been addressing school-based mental health through legislation enacted since the beginning of the ...
ASTHO placed 14 disability and preparedness specialists in health agencies to support inclusivity of people living with disabilities during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond. In this brief, three of these specialists share their experiences ...
State Policies Aim to Eliminate Food Deserts Beth Giambrone Learn how states are working to improve access to healthy foods and eliminate food deserts in this Health Policy Update. The environment where we live, work, and play can shape ...
The COVID-19 pandemic introduced new challenges for screening children’s blood lead levels, as screening rates across the country dropped during stay-at-home orders. A substantive federal policy change and provisions in the Infrastructure ...
The COVID-19 pandemic provided an unprecedented opportunity to speed up developing Delaware’s Functional Assessment Service Team and to test it at scale.
This interview is part of ASTHO’s Leadership Trailblazers series, which shares outstanding public health leaders’ inspirations, motivations, and accomplishments. This post features Karyl Thomas Rattay, MD, MS, director of the Delaware ...
This ASTHOReport serves as a primer for state and territorial health agencies seeking to assess the public health impacts of lead exposure in drinking water.
Anticipating a rapid deployment of COVID-19 vaccines as they are authorized, the CDC developed COVID-19 Vaccination Program Operational Guidance in collaboration with state and local jurisdictions to outline how each jurisdiction will make ...
Policymakers all over the country have used legislation about farmers markets and sugar-sweetened beverages to help curb many of the negative impacts of food environments.
ASTHO staff identified a range of evidence-supported policies considered by state legislatures that could prevent ACEs. This report synthesizes these research and policy proposals and is intended for public health practitioners and ...
A One Health approach can give health agencies the connections they need to address climate and health.
In collaboration with CDC, ASTHO launched its EPHT Fellowship Program to support state and territorial health agencies without dedicated federal funding in building tracking capacity. This brief shares solutions from Delaware and Kansas ...
Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome (NAS) has become more prevalent in the United States, with the hospitalization rate increasing from 2.9 to 7.3 hospitalizations per 1,000 newborn births between 2009 and 2017. NAS occurs in newborns who ...
Each year, ASTHO notes the top public health policy issues to watch in the upcoming year. Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl substances are synthetic chemicals that can migrate into soil, water, and air during production and use, and can accumulate ...
State and territorial health departments, federal agencies, and other national partner organizations are increasingly taking steps to support healthy brain development at the earliest stages of life.
State and territorial health agencies continue to be challenged by the opioid epidemic, which has been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Addressing the opioid crisis requires a robust public health response, which could be helped by ...
With data showing the number of the opioid overdose deaths escalated during the COVID-19 pandemic, access to naloxone, a medication that can reverse an opioid overdose, continues to be an important topic for policy makers. The number of ...