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1980
Programs in the Department's Division of Nuclear
Safety become the foundation for the new Department of Nuclear Safety.
1983
To focus on the problems of teen pregnancy,
adolescent childbearing and teen parenting, Parents Too Soon, a unique
cooperative effort among the departments of Public Health, Public Aid and
Children and Family Services, is launched.
1985
Contaminated milk from an Illinois milk production facility
causes the largest outbreak of Salmonella infection ever recorded in the U.S.,
affecting more than 18,000 people in five states.
1986
Under provisions of the Illinois Trauma Center Code, enacted in 1986, the
Department is required to designate trauma centers beginning in July 1988 and
to regulate them. All Illinois hospitals are eligible if they can meet
standards. Evanston Hospital received the first trauma center
designation and in 2002 there are 65 hospitals that are either a Level I or
Level II trauma center.
1987
The
Department creates a special AIDS section to coordinate the state's response to
this new disease and $2.3 million is earmarked for AIDS prevention and
education efforts with programs aimed at physicians, drug users and the general
public. Grants to local health departments fund counseling and testing sites
and money is appropriated for a toll-free AIDS hotline.
The Department becomes the first state agency to issue a non-smoking policy for
its offices.
1988
For the first time, the Department's Springfield laboratory
occupies space specifically designed for laboratory use. The $13 million
state-of-the-art facility provides 73,000 square feet of laboratory space for
the Department, the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency and Southern
Illinois University School of Medicine.
Illinois becomes the first and, as it
turns out, the only state to implement a controversial mandatory premarital
AIDS test. A 22 percent decline in the issuance of Illinois marriage licenses
follows.
U.S. Surgeon General C. Everett Koop, M.D. sends an eight-page
brochure, called "Understanding AIDS," to every household in America.
It is the first time the federal government has sent a health warning to every
residential address. Included is an explicit discussion of how AIDS is
transmitted and a recommendation that condoms be used to help prevent the
spread of the AIDS virus.
1989
Gov. Thompson signs a bill to repeal
the premarital AIDS test requirement just 21 months after its enactment. More
than 275,000 marriage applicants were screened for HIV infection and just 56
positive cases were identified. The legislation also repeals the premarital
syphilis testing requirement. |
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