Tagged: michigan department of community health

Update Monday, October 8, 5:04 p.m.

The Michigan Department of Community Health (MDCH) now reports 22 confirmed cases of fungal meningitis in Michigan.

From the MDCH:

Officials say there are at least eight confirmed cases of meningitis in Michigan, including two deaths.

The Michigan Department of Community Health said Saturday it won't be able to release any details about the deaths until after the weekend.

The meningitis outbreak has been linked to a steroid produced by a specialty pharmacy in Massachusetts. The steroid has been recalled, and officials have been scrambling to notify anyone who may have been injected with it.

Michigan's legislators have moved to protect student athletes from concussions. The AP has more:

The Senate on Tuesday passed measures requiring the Michigan Department of Community Health to develop educational materials and training for athletes, parents and coaches on concussion-related injuries and treatments.

The materials would identify the nature and risk of concussions and criteria for removing athletes from activity when they're suspected of having a concussion.

Update Aug. 30, 10:30 a.m.

Michigan health officials say an 87-year-old woman from Kent County is the fifth person to die from the West Nile virus in the state this year.

State Department of Community Health spokeswoman Angela Minicuci confirmed the death this morning.

She had no other details on the woman.

Aug. 29, 2012

Reports of West Nile virus cases keep coming in, and now Michigan health officials say the illness has reached epidemic proportions in the state.

Michigan State University entomologist Ned Walker recently told Michigan Radio's Rina Miller that the intensity of the virus is very alarming.  "I haven't seen anything that is this intense in my career," said Walker.

Officials said today an 86-year-old woman from Wayne County is the fourth person to die from the West Nile virus in the state this year.

LANSING, Mich. (AP) - The director of Michigan's Department of Community Health has stepped down.

Gov. Rick Snyder on Wednesday accepted Olga Dazzo's resignation and appointed former department director James Haveman Jr. as her replacement.

Snyder's office says in a release that Dazzo has decided to return to the private sector. Snyder appointed her to the post in December 2010.

Snyder says Dazzo "wants to more directly work with the health care system to bring about positive change."

In taking the job, Haveman resigned from the Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan Board of Directors. His appointment is subject to Senate approval. He is scheduled to start Sept. 1.

Haveman served from 1996 to 2003 as Community Health director and from 1991 to 1996 as head of the state Department of Mental Health.

The Snyder Administration has outlined its plan to reduce infant mortality in Michigan, but some say the plan needs more state funding to work.