This weekend is Mayor Catherine E. Pugh’s Spring Clean Up, which is a perfect reminder to take important steps to ensure that your home and community are healthy and safe. Zika season is right around the corner. Mosquitos can transmit Zika, West Nile, and other diseases, and the best way to prevent them is to stop them from breeding in the first place by removing any standing water from your property. Do a survey of your yard and make sure there are no empty flower pots, trash lids, or other containers that can harbor standing water. If you need assistance to eliminate standing water in your neighborhood, call 311 to report it.

Spring cleaning is also a good time to clean out your medicine cabinet. This Saturday is National Prescription Drug Take-Back Day, and today, I joined Baltimore City Police Commissioner Kevin Davis, Assistant Special Agent in Charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration Don Hibbert, and other leaders across the city to encourage residents to safely dispose of unused medications at one of the 10 permanent take-back boxes located at police stations across the city. Residents can drop off unused and unwanted medications year-round, no questions asked.

This past week, I had the opportunity to travel to the Midwest to share lessons from Baltimore and to learn from my public health counterparts around the country. We often speak about the stark health disparities in Baltimore City as manifested by the 20-year difference in life expectancy between zip codes. The challenges we face are not unique, nor are our efforts to combat disparities. 

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The first week of April is an important one in the world of public health as we recognize both National Public Health Week as well as National Youth Violence Prevention Week. At a time in Baltimore when public health is a critical lever for addressing some of our city’s major disparities, we must all consider the ways in which public health and social justice are inextricably connected.

Over the past few weeks, we have learned how recent federal policy proposals, including the potential Affordable Care Act (ACA) replacement plan and the President’s federal budget proposal, will have a drastic impact on crucial public health services in Baltimore and across the United States. In public health, we have a clear responsibility to speak up for those who may not be able to advocate on behalf of themselves, especially our society’s most vulnerable. In recent days, I have made it a priority discuss the impact of the Affordable Care Act repeal on the residents of Baltimoreand millions of other Americans who will lose coverage as a result of the proposed legislation.