Official insights from Public Health – Seattle & King County staff
There has been a nearly 5-fold increase in syphilis in cisgender women since 2015 (cisgender means one’s gender identity corresponds to one’s sex assigned at birth). All sexually active women 45 and under in Washington state who have not had a syphilis test since January 2021 are being advised to test for syphilis.
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With hot summer days comes an increased desire to cool off in the region’s pools, beaches, rivers, and lakes. But in 2020, as the Covid-19 pandemic pushed more people towards outdoor activities, King County saw drowning deaths double compared to 2018. Thirty-three people lost their lives in King County waters last year, nearly 70% of which occurred in open water incidents and drowning continues to be the second leading cause of unintentional injury death for children and teens.
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While the decrease in new cases is welcome news, much can still be done to lower risk for HIV transmission and assure that those who are HIV-positive are able to live healthy lives. Early diagnosis is critical to get people on treatment and virally suppressed. In King County, 85% of people with an HIV diagnosis are virally suppressed. People with virally suppressed HIV generally feel well and are unable to spread the virus to others.
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On Sunday, March 1, Executive Constantine signed a Proclamation of Emergency in response to COVID-19, enabling “extraordinary measures” to fight the outbreak, including waiving some procurement protocols, and authoring overtime for King County employees, among other powers. Executive Constantine immediately ordered the purchase of an area motel to be used to isolate patients in recovery […]
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After 35 years of wondering, a family finally has answers to what happened to their loved one who had been missing for more than three decades. And the King County Medical Examiner’s Office is finally able to officially identify an unidentified person who died in a Seattle park in 1985. The King County Medical Examiner’s […]
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The outbreak of novel coronavirus continues to grow in China and cases have been reported from multiple other countries. Widespread transmission is still limited to China and has not been reported from other countries at this time. Fourteen cases have been reported in the US, and there is no community spread occurring anywhere in the […]
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