"The Director's Diagnosis"

Dear Partners in Health,

2025 is already off to a fast start, and I am sure that you, like all of us at IDPH, are already back at full speed to take on the issues and challenges that await us this New Year.

2024 was a tremendously impactful year for IDPH and our continued goal of building a unified vision for health across Illinois. 2024 was a year of big plans, big events, rapid responses, and tremendous coordination and cooperation. Working together with our partners around the state, we delivered our "Healthy Illinois 2028" five-year State Health Improvement Plan, launched a major local public health transformation initiative, raised awareness in a new public health campaign on firearms restraining orders, and worked to protect the public health during major events, both planned – like the solar eclipse and the Democratic National Convention – and unplanned – like a measles outbreak or the rise of H5N1.

As you will see during this edition of Health Matters, our work continues in full force, as does our gratitude for the partnerships that enable us all to carry out our important responsibility to the people of Illinois. The work we’ve done in the past year and the issues we are tackling here at the beginning of 2025 are a testament to the power of those partnerships and to the professionalism and dedication that you show our great State.

The work of giving Illinoisans the tools to help them live their healthiest, most productive lives never stops, and we know that 2025 will be another critical year for public health. In this issue alone, you will read about our efforts to address a rise in pertussis cases; to harness data for action with the launch of an innovative, new violence dashboard; and to prepare for emergencies as we remain vigilant against H5N1 and seasonal respiratory illnesses.

We start this New Year with uncertainty on what the future will hold. However, the commitment of IDPH to improve the health of our communities remains true. We remain committed as always, as I know you do, to doing the hard and important work of keeping our fellow citizens safe and healthy.



I am proud to stand beside you in the year to come, protecting the health of our residents today and preparing them for the healthiest of futures. 

Yours in good health,

Sameer

2024 was an eventful year for everyone in public health. Some of the major milestones of the year were anticipated well in advance, like last April’s total solar eclipse or the influx of visitors to Chicago in August for the Democratic National Convention. Others were unexpected – such as the largest measles outbreak in years in Illinois, or the rise of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI).

Yet in all of those major incidents, and in a host of other issues large and small, planning and preparation were the keys to a successful response.

You can read in more detail about a number of these events in the just-released IDPH annual report for Fiscal Year 2024, covering the period from July 2023 to June of last year.

There was no let-up in the second half of calendar year 2024. Between July and December, IDPH embarked on a number of important initiatives, including:

• Expanding the number of “high-risk” ZIP codes where lead testing of children is mandatory, a significant step toward our goal of universal testing by 2026
• Issuing a report in conjunction with the University of Illinois Chicago outlining the significant health toll of homelessness, including a shorter life expectancy and increased risk of becoming a victim of violence
• Community outreach at events across the state, including the Illinois State Fair in Springfield and the Du Quoin State Fair
• Public awareness campaigns ranging from radio PSAs to promote awareness of congenital syphilis to educational efforts on food safety and the appropriate use of antibiotics
• Ongoing efforts to encourage people to be vaccinated against seasonal respiratory illnesses like the flu and COVID-19, including a stop in Southern Illinois where Director Vohra and Illinois Department of Natural Resources Director Natalie Phelps Finnie both received their immunizations.

In addition, a number of new rules and laws were approved during 2024 that will have an impact on public health in the New Year and beyond.



Meanwhile, IDPH continues to work on developing the public health infrastructure of the future, with our Public Health Workforce Transformation Initiative and continuing efforts at data modernization and improved communications.

IDPH Continues to Monitor Seasonal Respiratory Illness, H5N1

There’s no such thing as a winter break when it comes to monitoring for infectious diseases, from standard seasonal respiratory illnesses to the ongoing surveillance for potential cases of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI), also known as H5N1.

Illinois started off 2025 experiencing an overall increase in seasonal illnesses, as we normally do in the post-holiday timeframe.

At the end of 2024, the state moved up in our overall respiratory illness level as seen on the IDPH Seasonal Respiratory Illness Dashboard from Moderate to High. Fortunately, by mid-January, we have returned to an activity level of Moderate, giving us hope that we have reached our seasonal peak.

This winter surge has been driven primarily by flu. Hospital admissions for flu more than doubled in recent weeks from 1.5% to almost 4%. And almost 6% of emergency room visits were due to flu.

The good news is that in recent days, we have seen decreases in the number of emergency department visits and hospital admissions for all three of the major respiratory viruses.

The most effective tool for preventing seasonal respiratory illnesses remains the vaccinations for flu, COVID-19, and RSV. If you haven’t gotten your recommended shots already, it is not too late to get them now, as the respiratory illness season typically extends into the spring.

Meanwhile, IDPH and our partners around the state remain vigilant against avian influenza. As of this writing, there are still no confirmed human cases in Illinois. While CDC believes that the current H5N1 bird flu risk to the general public remains low, people with job- or recreation-related exposures to infected animals are at increased risk, especially when those exposures happen without appropriate protective measures in place, such as use of personal protective equipment (PPE). In most instances, human cases of avian influenza have been mild, with symptoms that may include fever, cough, and conjunctivitis. However, HPAI can cause more serious illness in those with underlying health conditions.

The potential for human exposure remains significant. HPAI has been found at several Illinois poultry farms, and also in wild waterfowl. IDPH and its partners at the Illinois Departments of Agriculture and Natural Resources have been working to remind the public about the need for caution. Ag has worked with IDPH and local health departments to encourage the use of PPE in farm operations. In addition to the potential risk to poultry farms, dairy cattle have also been infected in some states. There have been no confirmed incidents of infected dairy herds in Illinois as of mid-January, but appropriate use of PPE remains an important precaution.

And IDPH teamed up with IDNR to remind the public not to handle sick or dead wild birds, after several reports of significant die-offs of geese and other wild waterfowl. Direct contact with infected animals increases the risk of potentially contracting HPAI.

Although there are no known cases of human-to-human transmission of HPAI, IDPH continues to urge anyone with symptoms of respiratory illness to take all appropriate precautions, including practicing good hygiene, isolating when possible, wearing masks, and seeking appropriate medical treatment.

IDPH Launches Firearms Injury and Violent Deaths Dashboard

The Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) has launched a new dashboard detailing information about all violent deaths and firearm-related injuries in the state. The new dashboard is presented in two parts: Illinois Firearm Injury Rates and Illinois Violent Deaths. It is intended to provide detailed information at the county level about these incidents, including the types of incidents (e.g., homicide, suicide, etc.), weapon type and where victims reside, broken down by county. The goal of the dashboard is to inform data-driven prevention and intervention efforts to reduce violent deaths and firearm injuries in Illinois.

“Firearm violence is a public health crisis that requires public health solutions,” said IDPH Director Dr. Sameer Vohra. “Modernizing how we gather and use data is critical to finding holistic solutions that address firearm violence in a comprehensive way. IDPH is proud to partner with the Joyce Foundation and Understory to build this leading-edge dashboard that gathers comprehensive data about both violent deaths and firearm-related injuries. We look forward to partnering with our statewide and local leaders to use this dashboard to create data-driven policies and plans that make our communities safer and healthier.”

The dashboard development was funded through the generous support of The Joyce Foundation, a Chicago-based private, nonpartisan philanthropic organization that invests in public policies and strategies to advance racial equity and economic mobility in Illinois and other states in the Great Lakes Region. The dashboard was designed by Understory Consulting, a research and policy consulting firm that works on issues related to human rights, social justice and equity.

Read more about the new dashboard here.

The new dashboard is part of IDPH’s commitment to addressing and reducing firearm violence. That effort also includes the ongoing “Pause to Heal” public awareness campaign about how firearm restraining orders (FROs) can be used to temporarily remove firearms from the possession of someone in mental distress, reducing the possibility that they might use a weapon to harm themselves or others; that campaign is in partnership with the Ad Council and the Brady Campaign. IDPH has also actively promoted safe gun storage, including the distribution of more than 150,000 free gun locks around the state since the spring of 2023.

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