Courtesy Xochitl Mora,
Laredo, TX- The City of Laredo Health Department’s Healthy Living/Viviendo Mejor program will be hosting free Diabetes Support Group sessions starting this week.  The Diabetes Support Group gives adults with diabetes and their families and friends continuing peer support.  Five weekly meetings have been scheduled and will feature a variety of topics related to diabetes presented by experts in the healthcare field.  The Diabetes Support Group will meet once a week for the next five weeks at the City of Laredo Health Department’s Healthy Learning Center (2600 Cedar …

Courtesy Xochitl Mora,
Laredo, TX—The City of Laredo Health Department (CLHD) wishes to inform the public that Meningococcal Vaccine is no longer available for college entry through the Health Department.
 Please note that the CLHD receives all public vaccine from The Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS). The DSHS has recently advised us that, due to their funding reduction, there is no further safety-net vaccine available for adults.
 Therefore, college students entering the university for the first time must be vaccinated but will need to seek vaccine from their private provider, university …

Courtesy Xochitl Mora,
Laredo, TX—The City of Laredo Health Department (CLHD) is inviting the public to join an innovative and exciting Diabetes Education Prevention initiative “Healthy Living/Viviendo Mejor”.  This is the third cycle to help increase prevention, awareness, reduce risks of diabetes and its complications and improve diabetes self management to prevent this illness, which affects many in our community.  
 HLVM just graduated its second class and is currently seeking fifty (50) people to enroll in the third cycle. What is unique about these sessions is that it focuses on the …

Courtesy Xochitl Mora,
In Particular, Ice Cream
Laredo, TX—As warm weather approaches we tend to see illegal food vendors and want to caution the public to only purchase food from authorized and permitted vendors.
 The City of Laredo Health Department (CLHD) wants the public to know currently there are illegal ice cream vendors that we are monitoring as they are using illegal lead based containers which can be harmful to one’s health especially to children (from gastrointestinal problems, irritability, learning disorders to muscle and nervous system complications). Recently we have confiscated six …

Courtesy Xochitl Mora,
Laredo, TX—The City of Laredo Health Department (CLHD) is celebrating National Public Health Week to highlight “A Healthier America Begins Today; Join the Movement!”
Public Health through federal, state and local public health departments, is celebrating National Public Health Week (NPHW) to highlight what health departments do every day.
“We provide disease control, conduct preventive care, promote wellness and respond to biological events to protect and safeguard the wellbeing of all Laredoans,” said Dr. Hector F. Gonzalez, Director for the CLHD. In addition, …

Courtesy Xochitl Mora,
Laredo, TX—Women’s Preventive and Early Detection Care and Family Planning is critical to support wellness, prenatal and post natal care as well good birth and well child outcomes. With over 600 adolescent (under 18) women pregnant each year, rise in sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), a disparity in cervical cancer and increase in prematurity we need to assure that women have every opportunity to access care and family planning. There new services have been initiated to address women’s and well child newborn care.
 Women’s Preventive Care and Family Planning Clinic
Annual …

Courtesy Xochitl Mora,
Laredo, Texas — The City of Laredo Health Department (CLHD), through their HIV/AIDS Program, is joining the Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) Office on Women’s Health (OWH) in taking action against HIV/AIDS. On Monday, March 12, 2012, the City of Laredo Health Department will hold an event and information booth in honor of National Women and Girls HIV/AIDS Awareness Day where women and girls in the community will receive a FREE HIV Rapid Test and information on women’s health.  The event will be held at City …

Courtesy Xochitl Mora,
Laredo, TX—The City of Laredo Health Department (CLHD), in collaboration with the Laredo Health Coalition (LHC), introduced a new program Healthy Living/Viviendo Mejor (HLVM to increase diabetes prevention awareness activities, reduce risks of diabetes and chronic diseases and improve diabetes self management to prevent complications due to this illness, which affects many in our community.  
 HLVM just graduated its first class and is currently seeking fifty (50) people to enroll in the second cycle. What is unique about these sessions is that it focuses on the family and …

Courtesy Xochitl Mora,
The City of Laredo Health Department Continues to Offer FLU Vaccine
Laredo, TX – The City of Laredo Health Department continues to encourage the public to get vaccinated against influenza (FLU). Recently, a child was confirmed to have contracted H1N1 influenza and this could have been prevented if vaccinated.  The vaccine protects against both seasonal and H1N1 strains and is the most effective measure towards reducing the impact of influenza, and is particularly important for people who are at increased risk for severe complications from the flu.
 People in the …

Courtesy Xochitl Mora,
Laredo, TX – Laredo, TX – Join Mayor Raul G. Salinas and County Judge Danny Valdez for “A Day of Remembrance,” a special event to commemorate World Aids Day. “AIDS continues to be a public health concern even though there have been great strides in AIDS treatment and management” said Dr. Hector F. Gonzalez Director of the City of Laredo Health Department (CLHD). “We need to make it very clear that AIDS is still a serious and deadly disease if we do not adhere to the therapy regimen and …