The last few days of summer are often spent preparing for back to school. This year, make sure that when you are organizing backpacks and buying notebooks, you also include on your to-do list that child’s immunizations are up to date.  

This has been an exceptional summer in our wonderful area. I am sure that many of you have already enjoyed many picnics and barbeques, but it is not too late to remind you that summer is also a season ripe for food borne illnesses. 

We wait a long time for warm weather and when summer finally arrives we look forward to spending lazy sunny days at one of the great beaches Simcoe Muskoka is blessed with. 

Every now and again there are reports of a used needle being found somewhere in the community, at a beach, a park, a public washroom, in garbage cans or a community cleanup.  

Chlamydia is the most common reportable and preventable sexually transmitted infection (STI) in Simcoe Muskoka.  

National Immunization Awareness Week is celebrated each year to highlight the success of immunization today and the need for continued diligence of vaccinating beyond childhood.  

Fall-related injuries are the number one reason for children aged five to nine years to be treated at hospital emergency departments.  

March 24 is World TB day, a day that will likely pass without a lot of attention in Canada where the risk of developing tuberculosis is quite low for most of us.  

The theme of this year’s Nutrition Month “Celebrate food … from field to table” is a perfect opportunity to look at what can be done to put healthy local foods on the menu––not only at home but also in schools, child care settings, restaurants, workplaces and all the other places in Simcoe Muskoka where people and food come together. 

Why not make 2010 the year you join the majority and become tobacco free?