"Public health" is a phrase that can be heard seemingly nonstop whenever there is a health scare or disease outbreak. The current measles outbreak is an example of this -- a public health issue that makes headlines for days, weeks or months at a time. This week on “Take Care,” Baltimore City Health Commissioner Dr. Leana Wen discusses that public health is actually an everyday affair -- one that needs to receive more attention -- to better prevent and resolve such outbreaks. 

Make no mistake about it – Baltimore has been hit hard by the HIV epidemic. Baltimore City has the sixth highest rate of new HIV diagnoses in the country and one of the country’s highest HIV death rates. And although the number of newly reported HIV infections in Baltimore between 2009 and 2011 decreased overall by more than 24 percent, new infections diagnosed in the black community have increased by 1.5 percent.