The Health and Human Services Department awarded another $137 million in public health grants Thursday, most of it from a fund created by health care reform law.
Awarded in nearly every state, the HHS says the grants will enhance efforts to provide tobacco cessation services, strengthen public health laboratory and immunization services, prevent health care-associated infections, and provide comprehensive substance abuse prevention and treatment.
"More than ever, it is important to help states fight disease and protect public health," HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said in a release. "These awards are an important investment and will enable states and communities to help Americans quit smoking, get immunized and prevent disease and illness before they start."
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The grants will fund key state and local public health programs supported through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. Most of these grant dollars come from the Prevention and Public Health Fund created by the Affordable Care Act, but additional SAMHSA dollars were supplemented.
The awards include:
- Up to $75 million to fund nine screening, brief intervention, referral and treatment programs over the next five years. This intends to provide more comprehensive substance abuse screening, secondary prevention, early intervention and referrals to treatment for people at higher risk for substance abuse throughout the nation.
- More than $42 million to support improvements to the Immunization Information Systems (registries) and other immunization information technologies; development of systems to improve billing for immunization services; planning and implementation of adult immunization programs; enhancement of vaccination capacity located in schools; and evaluations of the impact on disease of recent vaccine recommendations for children and adolescents.
- $9.2 million to eight national non profit professional public health organizations to assist state, tribal, local and territorial health departments in adopting effective practices that strengthen their core public health systems and service delivery.
- Nearly $5 million to help states and territories enhance and expand the national network of tobacco cessation quitlines.
- $2.6 million to emerging infections programs around the country to continue improvement in disease monitoring, professional development and training, information technology development and laboratory capacity.
- $1.5 million to evaluate and prevent ventilator-associated pneumonia to reduce cases of Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus infections and protect Americans from health care-associated infectious diseases.
- $1 million to further enhance the nations' public health laboratories by hiring and preparing scientists for careers in public health laboratories, providing training for scientists, and supporting public health initiatives related to infectious disease research.
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