The “real brain drain” attracts widespread interest at PHA Early Years Interventions conference

The Public Health Agency’s commitment to giving every child the best start is off to a good start. The issue of the “real brain drain” in the 0–3 year age group has attracted attention from around 250 individuals and organisations attending the PHA Early Years Interventions conference taking place on Tuesday 31 May 2011 at the Octagon, King’s Hall, Balmoral.

PHA supports World No Tobacco Day

The Public Health Agency (PHA) is taking the opportunity to highlight this year’s World No Tobacco Day which takes place on Tuesday 31 May. In Northern Ireland, around 340,000 people aged 16 and over smoke. Smoking contributes not only to many cancers, heart disease, bronchitis and asthma, but to other illnesses, including stroke. In fact, smoking causes around 2,700 deaths per year here, all of them avoidable. The PHA is committed to saving lives by reducing the percentage of people who smoke. The PHA:

Transmit: Health protection service bulletin. 2011: Issue 2

The second edition of Transmit for 2011 leads with an update from the blood-borne viruses and sexually transmitted infections team. This includes information on the move to add hepatitis B to the Northern Ireland Hepatitis C Managed Clinical Network (MCN). There is an update on migrant health, as well as advice on hepatitis B antigens and what to do in the events of sharps injuries.

This edition also provides a graphical summary of hepatitis C reports in Northern Ireland during 2010, and the most recent statistics on food borne and gastrointestinal tract infections.

Belfast Transplant Games celebrate the ‘Gift of life’

**Press release produced by 1visionpr on behalf of TSUK** Dr Eddie Rooney, Chief Executive of the Public Health Agency and Chair of the local organising committee for the games welcomed the celebration and launch of the Westfield Health British Transplant Games at Stormont Buildings, Tuesday 24 May. The British Transplant Games will take place in Belfast from 4–7 August 2011. The games are a great way to celebrate the ‘Gift of life’ and provide an excellent opportunity to promote the NHS Organ Donation Register and encourage everyone in Northern Ireland to sign up.

Western Investing for Health Annual Report 2010-2011

Investing for Health is the cross-departmental public health strategy, published in 2002. It focuses on tackling the wide range of complex and inter-related factors that can impact on the health of the population. The strategy is based upon the recognition that the inequalities, which exist in health between rich and poor are widening and argues that the wider determinants of health can be addressed by integrated interventions and a coordinated approach between all sectors.

Health effects of volcano ash cloud

The Public Health Agency (PHA) is advising that the plume of volcanic ash over the north Atlantic is not currently a risk to public health in Northern Ireland. The previous eruption of the Eyjafjallajokull Icelandic volcano in April 2010 had no impact on public health in the UK and a study of respiratory and related symptoms reported to GPs in the UK in 2010 showed no unusual increases during the period in which the volcanic dust from Iceland was present in the atmosphere.
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