MMWR

Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report

(Box) Great American Smokeout — November 15, 2007

CDC
National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion
Office of Communications
(770)488-5131

No Summary Available

Cigarette Smoking Among Adults — United States, 2006

PRESS CONTACT: CDC
National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion
Office of Communications
(770) 488-5131

To resume the decline in cigarette smoking in the United States, comprehensive evidence-based approaches must be fully implemented. Cigarette smoking remains the leading cause of preventable disease and death in the United States, resulting in more than 438,000 deaths annually. In 2006, approximately 20.8% of adults were current cigarette smokers. This figure has not changed significantly since 2004, suggesting a stall in the previous seven-year (1997-2004) decline of cigarette smoking among adults. Additionally, even after being diagnosed with a smoking-related chronic disease, this group currently smokes at a rate higher than persons with other chronic diseases or persons with no chronic disease. In order to accelerate the reduction in smoking prevalence rates in the United States, comprehensive, evidence-based approaches for reducing the initiation of smoking and increasing cessation must be fully implemented. Additionally, people with chronic diseases caused by smoking may need more intensive assistance in overcoming their tobacco dependence.

Salmonella Typhimurium Associated with Raw Milk and Cheese Consumption — Pennsylvania, 2007

PRESS CONTACT: Stacy Kriedeman
Pennsylvania Department of Health
Office of Communications
(717) 787-1783

Consuming raw milk may result in serious infections including Salmonella, E. coli O157:H7, Campylobacter, Listeria, Brucella and tuberculosis. Drinking raw (unpasteurized) milk or eating cheese made from raw milk caused an outbreak of Salmonella infections among Pennsylvania residents in 2007. A total of 29 people were reported ill with the same unusual strain of Salmonella found repeatedly in raw milk produced and sold by one dairy in southern Pennsylvania. The dairy is no longer selling raw milk to the public. Salmonella infection causes fever, abdominal pain and diarrhea and can sometimes result in severe dehydration, bloodstream infections and death. Severe complications are more common among the very young, the elderly and people with compromised immune systems. Over half of those reported ill in this outbreak were children under the age of seven years. Two people were hospitalized in this outbreak, but no one died. As shown in this and numerous previous outbreaks, consuming raw milk may result in serious infections including Salmonella.

Syringe Exchange Programs — United States, 2005

PRESS CONTACT: Don Des Jarlais
Beth Israel Medical Center
(212) 256-2548

A national survey conducted by New York’s Beth Israel Medical Center finds that the total number of syringe exchange programs (SEPs) known by the North American Syringe Exchange Network to be operating in the United States has stabilized, as has the number of syringes exchanged by these programs. The survey summarizes activities of 118 SEPs operating in 91 cities. In 2005, a total of 22.5 million syringes were exchanged by the programs participating in the survey. The researchers found that increases in funding have allowed SEPs to expand the services they provide, and many have developed into larger community-based organizations that provide important public health services to both drug users and the community. In addition to providing new sterile syringes in exchange for used, often potentially infectious ones, nearly all of the SEPs offer services such as HIV prevention education (98%), education on safer injection practices (96%), substance-abuse treatment referrals (86%), and voluntary HIV counseling and testing (81%). As a result of such efforts, SEPs can provide a pathway to prevention, treatment, and care for individuals at risk for HIV. In addition, SEPs provide for the safe disposal of millions of potentially infectious syringes that might otherwise end up in the community.

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U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES