Earlier this week, Mayor Bloomberg announced a new plan to put health information of millions of New Yorkers online. He touted the initiative, "By bringing this health technology to New Yorkers, we are building a national model for a health care system that works... In Washington, they talk about how our health care system should be reformed; here in New York City, we are actually doing it." Using $60 million of city, state, and federal......

The Health Department revealed that cases of the flu have increased 19% since November. Health Commissioner Dr. Thomas Frieden said urged New Yorkers who haven't gotten a flu shot yet to do so. In November, there was an average of 4,900 flu-related hospital visits; last week, there were 5,832. It's most critical that adults 50 and over (especially those over 65), children between 6 months and 5 years, people with chronic medical conditions, health care......

Well, most of them. According to a reported issued by the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene yesterday, the city's overall death rate fell to an all-time low in 2006 mostly owing to decreases in smoking and HIV-related deaths. But although deaths from these causes were on the decline, those caused by substance abuse were up by 8 percent and lives lost from cancer and heart disease held steady for the year. 55,391 New Yorkers......

New York City's Conflict of Interest Board ruled that there was no problem in Deputy Mayor Dan Doctoroff continuing to work with real estate developers on multi-billion dollar real estate projects while a city employee, even though he'll be shortly negotiating with these same developers as a private citizen and President of Bloomberg LP, the Mayor's media corporation. According to the New York Post, the board cited "extraordinary circumstances" and said that Doctoroff's negotiations on......

As more cases of staph infections are being reported (a Newark public school security guard has MRSA, leading the school to be disinfected), parents are growing increasingly concerned about how schools are responding to the epidemic. Yesterday, school officials held a meeting at IS 211 in Brooklyn, the school Omar Rivera Jr. attended before dying from MRSA two weeks ago, to explain how it is dealing with the potentially deadly disease. The Post reports the......

The Health Department released preliminary data that shows HIV infections increasing among gay men under age 30. Specifically, for men-who-have-sex- with-other-men (MSM) under 30, HIV cases have increased by 33% and account for 44% of all new diagnoses (in 2001, they accounted for 31% of all new cases). The number of older MSM with new diagnoses of HIV is declining, but the number of new HIV cases for MSM between ages 13 and 19 has......

Just in time for the sixth anniversary of the September 11 attacks, Mayor Bloomberg announced the launch of a new World Trade Center health website, to provide "one-stop shopping for 9/11 health-related issues," making it the single source everyone can go to. What might you be shopping for? Well, there's information about research and services as well as "easily accessible research findings." And there's also information about treatment options for different groups of people,......

The Health Department announced that a 41-year-old Brooklyn woman had tested positive for the West Nile virus. This is the first reported case of West Nile in the city this year. The woman was hospitalized on August 25th, after suffering symptoms like fever, headache, fatigue, weakness and muscle pain. Though it is possible she was exposed to West Nile outside of the city since she did travel in the weeks preceding her illness, the Health......

Better make sure you've got your insect repellent ready: The Department of Health has found mosquitoes with West Nile virus in Flushing. No New York City residents have been been diagnosed with West Nile yet and Health Commissioner Dr. Thomas Frieden wants it to stay that way. He said, “West Nile virus has arrived in New York City, so protect yourself and your family. Wear insect repellent when you go outside and get rid of......

The city's Department of Health and Mental Hygiene is urging New Yorkers to be careful of ticks while spending time outdoors, especially since many are traveling to forested and wooded areas. The DOH's report has helpful preventative steps you can take, as well tips on how to remove ticks. And this FAQ on ticks has more info about the nasty buggers. Health Commissioner Thomas Frieden said, "While the number of tick related illnesses has fluctuated......

Today on Gothamist Newsmap: A brush fire at 147th and Harlem River Drive, a truck stuck under the bridge at the West 231st and Broadway subway tracks in the Bronx, and a barricaded EDP on Staten Island College news: NYU protesters didn't storm the stage when the president of the Minutemen visited and Barnard's president is stepping down after 14 years (!) According to the Post, Peter Braunstein "has sat through the hearings in......

And we'd subtitle the report "Or How 311 Doesn't Quite Work So Well." If you're looking for a page-turning read, look no further than the Department of Health's report - complete with next steps- on the rats at KFC/Taco Bell incident. Yesterday, Health Commissioner Thomas Frieden said, "Our restaurant program performs well overall, but in this instance there were failings of personnel, policy and practice." Well, that's an understatement. The DOH detailed the rat......

In a Department of Health and Mental Hygiene two-fer, the DOH announced that 5 million NYC Condoms were given given away between February 14 and March 14, while the Times reveals that the DOH is also working on a campaign to promote circumcision. The condoms, which the city handed out to the public on Valentine's Day and distributed to community organizations and stores, are a "sensation" according to Health Commissioner Thomas Frieden. Frieden said, "I......

The other day, we were listening to the radio and heard an ad with Wesley Autrey, the city's beloved subway hero! Autrey has done a series of public service announcements with the city's health department to encourage New Yorkers over 50 to get screened for colon cancer. From the DOH statement: "I’m an average New Yorker over the age of 50 who could be at risk of colon cancer," said Autrey. "That’s why I’m joining......

Even a week later, there's breaking news about the rats-at-the- Greenwich-Village-fast- food-joint story. The Health Department announced the health inspector who passed the restaurant the day before the rat show has been suspended. Not only that, the health department is :- Reviewing all the restaurants the inspector visited since joining last summer and may re-inspect them - Revisiting all restaurants owned by the franchise operator - Going to provide "training specific to assessment of rodent......

Yesterday, the Department of Health handed out the new NYC Condom all over town (video, too), excitedly pointing out that NYC is the first city to brand its own condom! Woo! Health Commissioner Thomas Frieden explained the move towards a branded condom, "Branding condoms is a great way to encourage their use. You know it's good quality, and you know it's a name you can trust." Frieden was also punny, saying, "We are unveiling,......

The man who doesn't want you to smoke in City bars or clog your coronaries with sweet, sweet trans fats now wants to do something healthy for the tiniest and newest New Yorkers. Mayor Mike Bloomberg is dropping more than $2 million on a campaign to get City run hospitals to encourage new moms to breast feed. City health commissioner, Thomas Frieden, wants babies to dine on nothing but their mothers' breast milk for the......

Always trendsetters, it seems that New Yorkers are outpacing the rest of the nation when it comes to diabetes. A study released by the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene yesterday revealed that one in eight New York City adults is afflicted by the illness with nearly as one third of that group unaware of it. In addition, more than half who know they have diabetes, are not controlling their blood sugar levels enough. Dr.......

This is a question that you may expect to hear from your doctor during your next check up if a new proposal by health commissioner Thomas Frieden and state assembly member Darryl Towns passes. A NY State law passed in the 1980s that required patients to provide permission or "informed consent" before they were tested for HIV may be replaced by new CDC recommendations that everyone between the ages of 13 and 64 should undergo......

Having already taken caffeine addiction and the price of a cup of joe to new extremes, Starbucks continues to set new standards by planning to eliminate trans-fats six months earlier than the new ban actually requires them to. Metro-area Starbucks will be knocking trans-fats off of their menus beginning tomorrow and while most of their drinks are already free of the stuff, some of the foods they carry are chock full of `em. The Daily......

Fret not, lovers of trans-fats, as it seems that the Board of Health has had a change of heart about banning them from city restaurants. Dr Thomas Frieden, the City Health Commissioner, spoke at a Crain's New York Business breakfast yesterday (we would love to see that menu), sharing that the original July 2007 deadline for banishing the good stuff may have to be postponed. A new proposal will be presented at a December 5th......

There's a movement afoot to change the city's health code to better reflect dog and dog owner habits. The Health Department will have a public forum and comment period to discuss off-leash hours in parks. Right now, while the Parks Department allows dogs to go leash-less between 9PM and 9AM, the city's health code doesn't allow that, a strange happening that's gotten attention since Queens civic group, the Juniper Park Civic Association, to sue......

Fast food may get a lot less tasty a little less unhealthy. Yesterday, our fair city's Health Department proposed measures to decrease the use of artificial trans fat at restaurants that can't seem to do it for themselves. The new law would limit restaurants to 0.5 gram of trans fat per serving. How much fat is that exactly? Well, a typical McDonald's hamburger contains 0.5 gm of TF and a yummy, yummy Big Mac contains......

Nothing quite says it's summer in the city like the Mayor introducing a new plan to battle a resistant strain of the flu that doesn't exist. Yesterday, Hizzoner introduced a plan to contain the possible pandemic that a gateway city like New York could expect if an unexpected mutant strain of the virus found its way here. This new (and quite early) Pandemic Influenza Preparedness and Response plan is piggybacking on the fears of those......

In a move to both elevate the level of cleanliness in restaurants and the Department of Mental Health and Hygiene brand, NYC's Health Commissioner Thomas Frieden announced the Golden Apple Award (press release with lots of details), which would bestow restaurants that "have excellent recent inspection results, participate in a new DOHMH Quality Improvement Food Protection course (or demonstrate that acceptable quality assurance measures have been in place for the last 12 months) and pass......

Fine, Mayor Bloomberg, you're making the whole going-out experience a little less gritty and exciting than it used to be (smoke-filled bars! loud music till all hours!). But if you do make city restaurants provide nutritional information, Gothamist won't have anything else to do but sit on the stoop with our 40! Health Commissioner Thomas Frieden says, "If people want to know, they should be able to find out." Yeah, but they might kill themselves......

A new report about the health conditions and violations of city food carts was released yesterday by State Controller Alan Hevesi. Violations include the sale of chicken with moldy bread, roaches in an ice cream cart, and one vendor urinating into a jar next to his cart. The Daily News points out that while 80% of restaurants are inspected, food carts have not been subject to similar monitoring. City Health Commissioner Thomas Frieden told the......