Friday, June 14, 2013
Patch offers mosquito prevention tips, and the map below shows the number of West Nile cases last summer.
After a particularly tough year for the West Nile virus in 2012, Massachusetts health officials are bracing for what could be another busy summer for the mosquito-borne illness. Although, with so many factors playing into the problem, the track of West Nile is not an easy one to predict, said Kevin Cranston, director of the Bureau of Infectious Disease for the Massachusetts Department of Public Health. “We can’t pin down all of the elements that go into why one season is bad and another season is not,” Cranston said. But if this summer is similar to last summer—marked by extended periods of very hot weather—some parts of the state could see a high number of cases as occurred in 2012. To give residents a sense of West Nile’s prevalence in …
Friday, April 12, 2013
It's wise to look for ticks on yourself and your children and pets after being outdoors.
Among the budding flowers and greening grass, another sign of spring has arrived. Tick season. The evidence? Two ticks, one on each of my dogs, I found this week. One dog had a tick on her snout, the other dog had a tick on her head that I found while petting her. Both ticks were about the size of a pinhead, and attached, but not yet engorged. I was able to remove them, and promptly gave both dogs a dose of K9 Advantix, which my husband I had stopped using for a few months this winter. I also checked the rest of the dogs' bodies for more ticks, finding none. With evidence that tick season is here it's a good reminder to check yourself, your children and your pets after being outdoors. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has …
Wednesday, January 23, 2013
CDC offers tips on keeping extreme cold at bay.
The National Weather Service predicts Woburn will feel some of the coldest temperatures of the season during the next 72 hours. An arctic blast of frigid air will cause evening temperatures to drop into the single digits and daytime highs will struggle to get out of the teens. "This will definitely be the coldest weather so far this season, and perhaps even colder than anything observed last winter," according to the NWS. The U.S. Center’s for Disease Control & Prevention’s brochure, entitled “EXTREME COLD: A Prevention Guide to Promote Your Personal Health & Safety,” provides a number of tips people can use to help combat the cold and its effects on homes, cars and people this week.
Saturday, January 12, 2013
Being healthy and safe is just minutes away.
The following text is compiled from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention tip sheets: "Being healthy and safe takes commitment, but it doesn’t have to be time-consuming," says the CDC. "Most things are so simple and take so little time, that you’ll wonder why you’ve been avoiding them." According to the CDC, we have 1,440 minutes in the day. Here are some quick tips that will only take away 1 to 5 of those minutes: One Minute or Less for Health Five Minutes or Less for Health More Than Five Minutes and Worth It WOBURN PATCH: Facebook | Twitter | E-mail Updates | Pinterest | Instagram
