Text Box: department visits represent only a small portion of all sports- and recreation-related TBIs; it is estimated that as many as 3.8 million of these injuries occur in the United States each year. Text Box: CDC Launches New Youth Sports Tool Kit to Help Coaches, Athletes, and Parents "Play it Safe" An estimated 135,000 (65 percent) of sports- and recreation-related traumatic brain injuries (TBI) treated in U.S. emergency departments occur each year in young people ages 5 to 18, according to a study published today in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention′s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR). Approximately 8 percent, or more than 10,000, Text Box: of these young people were hospitalized, the study said. Traumatic brain injuries, including concussions, are caused by a blow or bump to the head that disrupts the way the brain normally works. CDC researchers examined data from the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System All Injury Program (NEISS-AIP) from 2001 to 2005 and looked at both the overall number of traumatic brain injury-related emergency department visits and the activities with the greatest percentage of emergency department visits for that activity related to TBIs. Researchers say the emergency Text Box: The Flu-What You Can Do & Caring for People at Home Text Box: The Department of Public Health (DPH) today announced that the flu season is underway in Massachusetts. For the 2007-08 season to date, DPH has received 38 reports of Text Box: positive influenza laboratory tests from providers across the state. Of those able to be typed, 28 have been confirmed as influenza type A and six as influenza type B. Text Box: Last year at this time, there were 63 reports of influenza. National Influenza Vaccination Week begins today, November 26. This week serves to remind people that it is not too late to get Text Box: St. Agatha Parish Nurse Program Text Box: November 2007 Text Box: Volume 6 Issue 1

Fall/Winter Parish Health

Special points of interest:

· Great internet resources for health  and safety information on following pages.

· Give someone you love a pedometer for Christmas

· Healthy snack ideas for kids

· Winter/Holiday Safety
Text Box: Play It Safe Text Box: To Share, To Serve, To Care, To Listen, To Respond