Prevention Matters

Local health departments—the public agencies that work on-the-ground to safeguard their communities against the H1N1 flu virus and other threats to public health—sustained accelerated job losses during the first half of 2009, a new survey shows. Because of budget-related cuts, city, county, and other local health departments eliminated 8,000 staff positions between January and June, according to a survey conducted by the National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO).

This loss compounds the disappearance of 7,000 positions in 2008, determined by a previous NACCHO survey, the results of which were announced in January. Departments lost more jobs in the first six months of 2009 than in all of 2008.