Abortion

Abortions Maine and US 1978-2012

Abortion has been the center of political conflict for much of the last one hundred years, but especially so since the United State Supreme Court ruled in 1973, in the case of Roe v. Wade, that prohibition of abortion is an unconstitutional invasion of a woman’s right to privacy. However, the Court did allow for…

AIDS

Proportion of People with HIV/AIDS in 2009, by Region

The following maps, created by the Maine Bureau of Health, illustrate the spread of AIDS cases over the past two decades. Click on each map to see a larger, clearer version. Figure 2.3 (figure numbers are from the 2009 DHHS report cited below) below illustrates Maine AIDS diagnoses by year of diagnosis from 1984 to…

County Health Rankings 2011

Map: County Health Rankings for Maine 2011

The following health data and map are from the County Health Rankings web site, which states “The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation is collaborating with the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute to develop these Rankings for each state’s counties.”  See County Health Rankings 2013 for more information. The charts were created using data in the…

County Health Rankings 2013

County health rankings for 2011, with a state map and data charts, are reported in an earlier article.  The two complement each other. A more recent report of “How Maine Ranks” is available. Numbers under each category indicate the rank among Maine counties  in 2013, with “1” being the healthiest ranking.  See Maine’s rank in…

Death, Causes of

Chart: Causes of Death U.S. 2005

In 2005 twelve causes accounted for 80% of all deaths in the United States; thirteen accounted for 80% of all deaths in Maine. In both, heart disease and cancer alone caused nearly half of all deaths; stroke, lower respiratory diseases (such as bronchitis, emphysema, asthma), and accidents accounted for another 16 percent. In 1999, comparable…

Health, Suicide

Suicide by Method 2005 -2009

About fifteen of every 100,000 Mainers commit suicide each year.  Over 70% range in age from twenty-four through seventy-four.  Suicides occur at a rate of about seven times that of murders.  See other causes of death. The method of choice for males is a gun; for women it is poisoning.  The good news is that…

Healthcare Quality

2009 National Healthcare Quality Report: Ranking on Selected Measures The following ranking shows how well Maine is performing among all the States on 18 important measures of health care quality from the 2009 National Healthcare Quality Report. These measures were selected to represent a broad range of many common diseases. Lower “rank” numbers signify better…

Maine Influenza November 1918

[from “1918 Pandemic Influenza in Maine.” Maine Department of Health and Human Services.(edited for length and clarity)]* Saturday, November 2 The influenza epidemic, which has caused so much suffering in Portland, has passed its climax, but it has left behind weakness and desolation. Many families which have always been self-supporting have lost their providers. Others…

Maine Influenza October 1918

St. John School (later All Saints School) State Street, Bangor

[from “1918 Pandemic Influenza in Maine.” Maine Department of Health and Human Services.(edited for length and clarity)]* Tuesday, October 1 On account of the epidemic of Spanish influenza and the fact that five students who arrived this morning were found to be afflicted with the disease, the opening of Colby College has been postponed for…

Maine Influenza September 1918

Central Maine General Hospital c. 1918

[from “1918 Pandemic Influenza in Maine.” Maine Department of Health and Human Services.(edited for length and clarity)]* Saturday, September 7 The first soldier at Camp Devens near Boston becomes ill with influenza. Just 35 miles northwest of Boston this camp, like so many other military camps, was hurriedly erected in the summer of 1917, just…